The Affiliate Handbook 2006

James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook – 2006 (THIRD EDITION)

The Changing World Of The Internet Please Read First This manual was compiled with great care to provide upto-date strategies and techniques for publishing revenuegenerating websites. Everything taught here is based on the overall approach developed by James Martell, during a 5-year period, in which he launched “content rich” sites in 90 different industries – all of which generate revenue through “performance” advertising links. However, due to the ever-changing world of the Internet, the author and publisher is not responsible if third-party companies – used as reference in this document – should make changes that adversely impact the advice offered here. Because of James’ commitment to helping his readers succeed, he has developed three ways to stay current. One is through a password protected updates page. This is where James will post updates throughout 2006 and 2007 if adjustments are needed. This ‘refreshed’ version features a compilation of updates, most of which were posted on the ‘Updates’ page between January 2005 and January 2006. Login Panel (for updates page): www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/login-panel.html

Username: amh Password: updates The second way to stay informed is through a searchable database of common questions received since the launch of this training in May 2002. A third – and best – way to stay involved is through a subscription to James Martell’s Affiliate Buzz.

© 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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This lively audio newsletter comes out twice a month and features candid 30-minute conversations between James and other industry experts discussing the expanding affiliate marketing business and the fantastic lifestyle that goes along with publishing revenue generating websites. The “buzz” is a paid subscription of $10/mo. payable month-to-month, and cancelable anytime. Feedback from listeners over the first three years of production has been extremely positive. Many have said it made the difference because it kept them “on track”. All “book n’ buzz” customers get a free copy of James’ Audio Report on How to Hire Authors, A must for any serious Internet publisher.

And you can still get it without cost if you didn’t take the “book n’ buzz” combo originally. After subscribing send us an email – and we will reply with download details for the Hiring Authors report. www.affiliate-buzz.com Request Hiring Authors Report here: [email protected] Please don’t copy this manual James Martell invested over 6 months of his time and many thousands of dollars to organize a first class downloadable training. His company, Net Guides Publishing Inc. is the copyright holder. He would very much appreciate it if you do not make this manual available to others who have not paid for it (other than a partner or spouse). Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation. NOTE: send information about this training to friends and associates and get paid when they purchase by joining James’ affiliate program. http://www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/make-money-online.html


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Table of Contents About The Author ............................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ......................................................6 Why 2006? ...................................................................... 7 A look back ....................................................................7 So, how is 2002 working today? ........................................7 2005 – “Revisited” ..........................................................8 2006 – “Refreshed” – THIRD EDITION................................9 Four Types Of Readers in 2006 ....................................... 11 1 - You’re A New Purchaser ............................................ 12 2 - You’re In The Early Stages Of Building Websites ........... 12 3 - You’ve Been Around Awhile But Have Gotten Off Track........................................................................... 13 4 - You’re Well Into A Successful Website Publishing Career ......................................................................... 14 An Overview of Affiliate Marketing ................................ 15 Amazon’s not a jungle anymore ...................................... 15 Go shopping for merchants ............................................. 15 eBay and other corporate giants cash-in on pay-forperformance – and you can, too! ..................................... 16 “Know-how” rules.......................................................... 18 How about credit card companies sending YOU a check for a change? ............................................................... 19 Times they-are-a-changing............................................. 20 Show me the money...................................................... 21 Step forward and count yourself in .................................. 21 Getting The Most From This Manual............................... 23 There’s danger in dem der hill-o-words. ........................... 23 Are you a Newbie or a Guru? .......................................... 24 Do simple things repeatedly............................................ 24


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Get a birds-eye view first ............................................... 25 Celebrate success.......................................................... 25 Set a schedule .............................................................. 26 Set realistic goals .......................................................... 27 Timelines for success ..................................................... 28 You’ll be on the Internet a lot.......................................... 28 First things first ............................................................ 29 Using Acrobat features................................................... 30 Using the video tutorials................................................. 32 Using recommended resources........................................ 33 Affiliate Buzz audio newsletter......................................... 34 How the buzz was born .................................................. 34 By most accounts, the buzz has been a great success! ....... 35 Become resourceful ....................................................... 36 On your mark, get set… ................................................. 39 Step #1 How to Get (and stay) Organized ..................... 40 Whoops, I forgot! .......................................................... 40 Necessity is the mother of invention ................................ 41 Baby step #1: Shop for Supplies ................................. 42 Baby step #2: Set-up the Affiliate Organizer ................. 42 Baby step #3: Set-up your Internet start page .............. 44 Baby step #4: Set-up browser folders .......................... 46 Baby step #5: Set-up folders to manage your email ....... 47 Baby step #6: Determine your business address............ 50 Baby step #7: Organize your banking .......................... 51 Baby step #8: Choose a username and passcode ........... 51 Baby step #9: Set-up a form-filling service ................... 53 Baby step #10: Upgrade your browser ......................... 54 Baby step #11: Set-up a PayPal account ...................... 54 Baby step #12: Managing your finances ....................... 55 Preparing for the “ups” and “downs” ................................ 56 Baby step #13: Develop a realistic mindset................... 57


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Baby step #14: Complete the checklist for Step #1........ 58 Step #2 Finding the Right Topic For You! ...................... 59 In the beginning – was a decision .................................... 59 A publisher’s role is simple ............................................. 61 The 6 most important factors in choosing a topic (in order of priority) ........................................................... 63 Baby step #1 It’s time for a treasure hunt .................... 66 Take a peek into your topics ........................................... 70 Part 1 – An overview of ‘affiliate’ programs .................. 71 Baby step #2: Grab your BIG List ................................ 71 Baby step #3: Find some advertisers ........................... 72 Baby step #4: Get familiar with the many topics............ 74 Baby step #5: Compile data on possible topics .............. 76 Baby step #6: Review and drill down ........................... 77 Part 2 – An overview of ‘sponsored link’ programs ....... 79 Baby step #7: Grab your 12 files ................................. 80 Baby step #8: Head back to Google ............................. 81 Baby step #9: Familiarize yourself with Google “Sponsored Links” ..................................................... 81 Baby step #10: Evaluate the bid rates.......................... 83 Baby step #11: Find Yahoos’ Overture bid tool .............. 84 Baby step #12: Pick your best three ............................ 86 Baby step #13: Think boutique – not shopping mall ....... 87 Baby step #14: Complete the checklist for Step #2........ 88 Step #3 Keywords Are the Building Blocks.................... 90 Know thy keywords ....................................................... 90 But, first – a search engine primer................................... 91 Spiders at work............................................................. 93 Spiders with a purpose................................................... 94 Please feed the spiders .................................................. 94 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #1: Visit Wordtracker .................................. 95 Baby step #2: Read more about Wordtracker below ....... 96 Baby step #3: Take the Wordtracker Tour..................... 96 Baby step #4: Take a 1-day subscription ...................... 97 Baby step #5: Click-thru to #1. Keyword Universe ......... 99 Baby step #6: Follow their 4-step process................... 100 How many words? ....................................................... 104 Choose keywords with at least 10 searches..................... 105 Be specific.................................................................. 106 Run that by me one more time...................................... 107 Baby step #7: Check for competing web pages............ 107 You simply CANNOT get this wrong so do not worry! ........ 112 Baby step #8: Complete the checklist for step 3 .......... 112 Step #4 Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose Your Template ..................................................................... 114 Mr. Web speaks the language of HTML ........................... 114 Viewing this code on any website is easy ........................ 116 Servers hold the data .................................................. 116 Publishing to the Net with online website publishing software is a cinch....................................................... 117 Templates are good for beginners (and veterans) ............ 119 Sample websites using templates .................................. 120 How easy is it? ........................................................... 121 Two things to make it easier ......................................... 121 But, first – a little background....................................... 122 It’s a small world ........................................................ 124 A little show-and-tell goes a long way ............................ 125 It’s decision time......................................................... 125 Just don’t forget… ....................................................... 127 Baby step #1: Now it’s time to decide on a keywordbased domain name................................................. 131 Remember, – be “kind to spiders” ................................. 132 A further illustration .................................................... 133


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It’s easy to find the perfect domain name ....................... 134 The dashes vs. no dashes debate .................................. 135 So, what’s it gonna be?................................................ 135 Baby step #2: Register your domain name at Domain Maniac ................................................................... 136 Just do it.................................................................... 137 Time flies ................................................................... 140 Baby step #3: Visit ez-WebBuilder.com ...................... 141 Sign-up for the 10-day free trial .................................... 142 Test the waters........................................................... 143 Baby step #4: Let’s select a template......................... 144 Interchangeable header graphics are important ............... 145 Design services you may need ...................................... 145 Baby step #5: Okay, I want THAT one........................ 146 Baby step #6: Complete the checklist for Step #4 ....... 146 Step #5 Building Winning Websites ............................ 148 Where the rubber hits the road ..................................... 149 Part 1 – Organize your words ...................................... 152 An overview of my approach to site navigation ................ 152 ‘Product’ pages are designed to make money .................. 152 ‘Article’ pages are designed to link to your product pages . 153 ‘Article’ pages all point to a ‘product’ page ...................... 153 Articles galore ............................................................ 154 The strategic reason for leaving merchants off article pages ........................................................................ 154 Navigation bar buttons with a difference......................... 155 Less is more ............................................................... 156 It PAYS to think like a surfer! ........................................ 156 A good example of a home page ................................... 157 Some definitions are in order ........................................ 159 Just follow my lead...................................................... 163


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First – an OVERVIEW of the process of building a product page before you begin ................................................. 164 Baby step #1: Pick your merchants............................ 165 Baby step #2: Categorize your product pages ............. 166 Baby step #3: Get your Google eyes .......................... 168 Google PageRank explained .......................................... 169 Example .................................................................... 171 Backward link anomaly explained............................... 177 Baby step #4: Narrow down your keyword list............. 178 If your first list is vague… ............................................. 179 A more focused way to use Wordtracker ......................... 179 Baby step #5: Choose your Primary keywords ............. 181 You can win with 20-40 Backward Links ......................... 182 Who is number one on your list? ................................... 183 Baby step #6: Choose your Tier-1 Secondary keywords ............................................................... 183 Here’s an example of avoiding duplication....................... 184 Stay on purpose.......................................................... 186 Baby step #7: Choose your Tier-2 Secondary Keywords ............................................................... 186 Baby step #8: Choose your Navigation Bar Button names ................................................................... 186 Baby step #9: Select a few merchants (advertisers) for each Product Page .............................................. 187 Baby step #10: Evaluate your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank’ Chart .................................. 188 Part 2 – Modify your template ..................................... 189 Baby step #11: Modify the look of your template ......... 189 Login to your ez-WebBuilder account ............................. 189 At first it bears no relation to your topic ......................... 190 Baby step #12: Rename your navigation bar buttons ... 191 Changing the buttons .................................................. 192 Baby step #13: Modify the header graphic .................. 196 Now you have a BBQ grill site ....................................... 197


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Baby step #14 Pay for YOUR new site ........................ 198 Baby step #15 Set-up your domain name settings ....... 199 Go visit your site!........................................................ 200 Baby step #16: Complete the checklist for Step #5...... 200 Step #6 Add Keyword Focused Content....................... 203 How do I write content? ............................................... 203 Content is not just text anymore ................................... 205 Magazines, newspapers, radio and television................... 207 Part 1 – Content development ..................................... 209 Getting to know your visitor.......................................... 209 Keyword phrases provide clues ..................................... 211 Baby step #1: It’s time to research the merchants ....... 212 I didn’t know that… ..................................................... 215 Baby step #2: It’s time to make some observations ..... 217 Baby step #3: What’s it going to be?.......................... 218 I make a few decisions................................................. 220 Organizing the writing process ...................................... 221 Baby step #4: Use a ‘work order’ to organize your thoughts ................................................................ 223 Keyword density ......................................................... 231 Elance.com solves writers block! ................................... 237 Part 2 – Upload your content....................................... 239 Baby step #5: Import your content ............................ 239 Time to fully optimize .................................................. 243 Bolded keyword .......................................................... 244 Add a ‘Friendly URL’ .................................................... 245 Italicized your Primary keyword .................................... 245 Optimize your headline (H1) ......................................... 246 How-to create your Title tag, Keyword and Meta Description tags .......................................................... 247


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How-to insert your Title tag, Keyword and Meta Description tags .......................................................... 248 Your Home page is ALSO Product Page ........................... 250 Article Pages explained ................................................ 251 Other supporting pages................................................ 252 Adding photos and images............................................ 257 Baby step #6 Identify the images .............................. 259 Baby step #7 Place an order for custom graphics ......... 260 Baby step #8 Upload your images.............................. 260 Baby step #9 Wrap-up your pages ............................. 261 Baby step #10: Complete the checklist for Step #6...... 261 Step #7 Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits.......... 263 Take your time and get acquainted ................................ 263 Part I – Join your first affiliate program...................... 265 Baby step #1: Join the affiliate program ..................... 265 First, pre-determine your best affiliate programs ............. 267 You are halfway there .................................................. 268 Why a short list of merchants works best........................ 268 Say NO to flash banners............................................... 270 Why referrals work best ............................................... 270 Join only your best affiliate programs ............................. 272 Baby step #2: Place some links on your site................ 272 What happens if a merchant rejects me? ........................ 273 How to get links from Netshops..................................... 273 TheGrillSuperStore looks like a good bet......................... 274 Ten links to choose from .............................................. 275 Get HTML ................................................................... 276 Time to cut and paste .................................................. 277 How to modify your Font .............................................. 279 Now your advertiser has a link on your site..................... 280 How to modify your text............................................... 281 How to modify TheGrillSuperstore text ........................... 281 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Another way to add a text link ...................................... 282 Tips, tricks and techniques ........................................... 284 Don’t forget your Home page ........................................ 285 Preview your site ........................................................ 285 Revenue links on article pages ...................................... 285 Revenue links on Article pages ...................................... 286 Now here is the reason these Google Ads are different from a typical merchant ad ........................................... 287 What about my merchants? .......................................... 288 Part 2 – Join the Google AdSense sponsored link program ...................................................................... 289 Revenue streams off every page ................................... 289 Baby step #3 Join the Google Adsense ‘sponsored link’ program................................................................. 290 Setting up tracking channels......................................... 291 Baby step #4 Set-up a few channels .......................... 292 Google Ad placement strategies .................................... 293 Ad formats ................................................................. 294 Baby step #5 Add some Google ads ........................... 295 Baby step #6: Complete the checklist for Step #7 ....... 302 Step #8 Building Traffic from Multiple Sources .......... 304 Now for the icing on the cake........................................ 304 Baby step #1: Submit your site to all the major search engines ........................................................ 305 Site submission in a nutshell......................................... 306 Yahoo is an exception .................................................. 307 Automatic submission works fine ................................... 307 SelfPromotion.com in a nutshell .................................... 308 Time to get “tooter” working for you .............................. 308 Baby step #2: Review Google Mastery....................... 309 Understanding link popularity........................................ 312 Lineups say a lot ......................................................... 314 Is there a lineup to your site? ....................................... 315 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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A valid lineup to your site works, – a phony lineup doesn’t ...................................................................... 315 Play by the rules and win ............................................. 315 Baby step #3: Develop an inbound linking plan ........... 316 How many inbound links do I need?............................... 317 Anchor text management ............................................. 320 Baby step #4: Set-up some internal links ................... 322 Baby step #5: Setting up a Site Map .......................... 324 Baby step #6: Set-up an Article Map .......................... 325 Baby step #7: Set-up a Footer menu ......................... 328 A link builder’s mindset ................................................ 330 Quality links from many sources.................................... 331 Baby step #8: Distribute a number of professionally written articles ........................................................ 332 Baby step #9: Set up a ‘link to us’ page ..................... 334 Baby step #10: Submit to a few article directories ....... 336 Baby step #11: Attract a few good link partners .......... 337 Baby step #12: Submit your site to a few paid directories .............................................................. 340 Baby step #13: Considering buying a few links ............ 340 Baby step #14: Distribute a press release................... 341 Baby step #15: Pay-per-click search engines are another option ........................................................ 347 Baby step #16: Add your counter .............................. 351 Some of what a ‘counter’ does ...................................... 352 30-day free trial.......................................................... 352 Adding it to your website.............................................. 352 Baby step #17 Complete the checklist for Step #8 ....... 356 Summing It Up ............................................................ 359 Step-1 – How to Get (and Stay) Organized ..................... 359 Step-2 – Finding the Right Topic for You......................... 359 Step-3 – Keywords are the Building Blocks ..................... 360 Step-4 – Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose your Template .. 360 Step-5 – Building Winning Websites ............................... 360 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step-6 – Add Keyword Focused Content ......................... 360 Step-7 – Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits .............. 360 Step-8 – Building Traffic from Multiple Sources................ 361 Now it’s up to you to manage your business for growth .... 361 Recommended Resources............................................ 362 Affiliate networks: ....................................................... 362 Search engines resources:............................................ 363 Appendix of Worksheets.............................................. 364 Big List ...................................................................... 365 Home & Product Page Optimization Chart ....................... 366 Article Page Optimization Chart ..................................... 367 Keyword and Merchant Chart ........................................ 368 Article Keyword Chart .................................................. 369 Index........................................................................... 370


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James Martell, Internet publisher, author and lecturer

A Ab boou utt T hee A utth hoorr Th Au James Martell is a Canadian businessman who resides with his wife Arlene and four children Adam, Justin, Shelby and Victoria in White Rock, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. Although a carpenter by trade, James has been in business for himself most of his adult life. Immediately before his foray into website publishing in 1999, he owned and operated two successful telecom services in the Vancouver area. One was an innovative idea that used a simple voicemail platform to offer extended-local-calling for a flat fee instead of the usual per-minute rates charged by the local phone company. His second service offered residents of Vancouver a series of telephone-based information hotlines, such as movie listings, winning lottery numbers, and road reports. Listeners received the desired announcements after listening to a 15-second radio-style commercial. Although these services were very popular with the public, they were eventually shut down due to the huge amounts


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About The Author

of capital and human recourses needed to successfully compete with the Telco’s. On the heels of dissolving these businesses, he discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing from an associate who was doing well offering North American consumers free ISP accounts. Eager for similar success, James built his first website with FrontPage using only the “know-how” his friend taught him. Soon he was getting a staggering 5000 visitors a day though natural search results at the major search engines. He was so intrigued by this innovative and interesting web-based way to make money that he studied anything and everything related to the Internet. To his surprise, he discovered that numerous other industries also offered revenue-sharing opportunities (affiliate programs) to web site owners. This prompted him to build another site. He chose satellite TV as the topic and developed a site that drove traffic to a company offering consumers a free satellite TV dish in exchange for a yearly commitment. And, as was the case with the free ISP site, the traffic he was getting at the search engines was high, – so once again he started earning good money with affiliate programs. Within the first six-months, he branched out with four additional sites, providing him and his family with an excellent monthly income, similar to his former traditional business, but without any of the operational overhead he was used to. Whereas, most webmasters and some industry experts at that time tended to complicate matters, Martell was more inclined to discover the underlying structure of site design and traffic generation so that he could apply a set of basic rules and procedures to any site he built in the future – with the goal being to ensure repeatable success. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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About The Author

After first teaching a few of his friends the basic rules he formulated, – and then witnessing their successes – James and former business partner, Chuck Anderson, joined forces to launch a series of $1000-$2000 workshops in the Vancouver area to train others. These classes were eventually discontinued because they took valuable time away from his main business: publishing revenue-generating websites. But – as any listener to the “buzz” knows, James gets a lot of personal satisfaction from seeing others succeed with his methods. So to replace his 2001-2002 classes, he released a downloadable training on May 10th, 2002, that would be a “home-study” version of the live classes. That downloadable training was entitled James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook – 2002. Organizing the original handbook took him and a full-time editor 6 months to complete. In late 2004, as a service to readers, he released the 2005 “revisited” version, a compilation of 28 additional points, most of which were released over the first 2½ years on his password protected “updates” page. In late 2005, after witnessing a year of ongoing changes at Google, taking-in feedback from students, and weighing the observations he made from his own business, James decided it was time to provide readers with a thoroughly “refreshed” handbook. This latest “refreshed” version took James and a part-time editor a full 3 months to complete. Highlights to this most recent version include the full integration of the original 28 points from the 2005 edition into the manual, 13 additional updates, new screenshots, a series of helpful video tutorials, and much more. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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About The Author

And, this “refreshed” version provides students with the truly unique and valuable opportunity to watch James as he builds a website from scratch, page-by-page. Students actually watch James go through the process of finding a topic, determining the keywords to use, designing the site, building each page, writing all of the content, working with Google AdSense, and more! And added screenshots allow students to complete the process with James, hand-in-hand for the very best results – online success. And speaking of success, in the years since the handbook came out, numerous people have written to say that they, too, have enjoyed much success, thanks to the training. In fact, numerous individuals got wind of James’ Internet success and bought the manual too – with several eventually earning very comfortable incomes, on par with James’ excellent income. James works from his home office – with his wife Arlene writing the content – while he manages websites in dozens of different industries – all of which generate revenue through the “performance advertising” model - the key concept behind affiliate programs. Some observers of his current lifestyle and publishing success on the Net might say that he’s lucky – and I’d agree. He was at the right place, at the right time, with the right “know-how.” But, I’d also say that his passionate desire to provide for his family is the real key to his success. And if you also have a great motivation for success in this business, I’d like to encourage you to follow the model that James has laid out in this excellent training. For it not only works for him - I’ve seen it work for numerous others who are following in his footsteps. The bottom line is this: You have an excellent mentor in James Martell. And you can have twice-a-month access to recorded conversations of James discussing the ups and downs of © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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About The Author

website publishing to ensure that you stay inspired, informed, and motivated, as you learn how to publish profitable websites of your own. Until then, I wish you all the best,

Charles Johnston, Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada


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About The Author

Acknowledgements I wish to thank the many students who attended my 2001 live trainings in New Westminster, BC (near Vancouver) for their enthusiasm and keen interest in Affiliate Marketing. Their questions were invaluable to me in determining what an entry-level person needs to know to successfully get started. It was their excellent feedback that provided the organizational basis for this home-study training. Thanks also to Chuck Anderson, who partnered with me in launching those classes. I’m also grateful for the editorial assistance of Charles Johnston, my long time friend and business associate, who collaborated with me on this project from the very beginning. Thanks and more thanks to Michael Campbell, Phil Wiley, Allan Gardyne, Rob McLean, Ken Chidlow, Geoff Morris and the many, many thousands of readers, students and affiliates. And of course, I’m so grateful to my friend Shawn Bouchard, who got me started with affiliate marketing by teaching me the essential keys to publishing high-traffic web sites. It was that original site – the one offering free ISP (short for free Internet service provider) – that sold me on the revenue potential of affiliate programs. And thanks to my lovely wife, Arlene. Thank-you for the support you’ve provided over the years, through both the good times and the bad. Through it all you never gave up on our dreams!


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W Wh hyy 2 00 06 6?? 20 A look back Back in the winter of 2002, as I was preparing to release my downloadable training, Google threw me off track with a zero PageRank Penalty (PR0). This caused me to re-think some strategic advice I was planning to offer in my “soon-to-be-released” training. I named my first training “2002” for two reasons: One, I wanted buyers know that my concepts were fresh and up-to-date – written by someone actually succeeding with affiliate programs – because at the time there were many e-books that were, sadly, only rehashes of what was functionally useless and obviously dated. The second reason for a “time-stamp” was a precaution against being caught off guard again by Google or others. You see, at the time, I had no way of knowing if my processes would stand the test of time. So if my training became structurally unsound, I could rewrite the manual and re-release it under a title reflecting the current year. And because I was actually participating in the business I would be the first to know if my methods still worked.

So, how is 2002 working today? Although I was perfectly willing to release a “current” version at various times over the last few years, I never saw the need. In fact, I continued to hear about tremendous success from students who would email me and share their © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Why 2006?

excitement about earnings they’ve achieved - whether it was that steady $30 a day or that very first check – or, in many cases, how they had become totally financially free as a result of the training – the one with “2002” on the cover. Although minor adjustments were needed in the first 2½ years – I found I could easily reach students about these things through “updates” page (a password protected area on work-at-home-net-guides accessible only to students). But over the years, some potential buyers and affiliates would write saying the 2002 date caused them to consider that maybe my stuff was dated. Of course, I knew otherwise.

2005 – “Revisited” Admittedly, however, I weighed every criticism and concern about the 2002 date and, after much thought, decided to expand on the 2002 handbook, adding 80 new pages at the very front. For, I knew that the information – the tips, tools and techniques contained throughout, were still working for me (and the majority of my students), but I felt a strong need to provide additional information that would perhaps clarify much of what was written in the 2002 version. By further expanding and clarifying up-front, I felt confident I could address the needs of the handful of students who had expressed concerns. So I got right to work. And, in the end, I produced the 2005 “revisited” version of the handbook, which was simply the 2002 version with 80 new pages grafted onto the front. These 80 pages contained the entire password protected UPDATES area, which consisted of twenty-one “revisited” points, – and seven “additional” points (28 Total). Each point was covered in two ways.


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Why 2006?

1. I summarized what I said “then” (2002), and provided a bookmark – after the text – to a place in the manual where I covered it originally. 2. Directly below each short summary of what I said “then” I “revisited” what was originally said – and provided arrows that linked back to the original section so students could toggle back and forth. While this seemed liked the most logical and best course of action to take, because of the way it was constructed with the “what I thought then,” and “my revisited thoughts,” it had become cumbersome for some and a few readers reported having trouble “flipping back and forth.” So, this got me again thinking about how to improve the organization of the handbook.

2006 – “Refreshed” – THIRD EDITION In closely reviewing the structure of the manual, I must admit, I got “the bug.” Of course, this was heavily influenced by changes going on at Google and the important fact that the overall industry seemed to be undergoing an overhaul, of sorts. So, I decided this: If I am going to make a few minor adjustments, I may as well settle in for the long haul and give the old gal a full-fledged tune-up. And, in looking under the hood, I thought of some great ways I could help my students – like by including video tutorials. I figure that I learn best by seeing, so others must, too. Of course, while there are some recent search engine changes that I wanted to discuss, I knew I had to keep the tried and still true 21 “revisited” points, and 7 “additional” points. Plus, I have added 13 “new” points, carefully integrating these into the 2006 Third Edition. In other words, the full training from 2002, the additional information added in early 2005, and all the UPDATES


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Why 2006?

from January 2005 to March 2006 have been fully integrated into a logically flowing document. I have also added video tutorials. The videos, which are sprinkled throughout the handbook, really help clarify important information, while allowing me an opportunity to demonstrate the steps.

And I build an actual website in this third edition – right before reader’s eyes! This sample site will be password protected so only readers have access to it and can rely on it as they build their site, or perhaps as a refresher when they build their second and third sites. By having ongoing access to the sample site, students have a reference point for everything – from building pages and keyword placement to writing the actual content, even placing ads. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Why 2006?

And, I have painstakingly added an Index. What an undertaking this was! But the results are worth it, for students can now easily search the manual for anything. Additionally, they can use the Index to cross-reference, to research – you name it, this Index will help you do it. Of course, as I made my way through the “refreshing process,” I took the opportunity to expand on a few areas, providing additional clarity where needed, or interjecting information from the insights my students provided me (since the launch of the 2002 version). You’ll still need to login to the “updates” page periodically, in case things change during 2006 and 2007, but all the former new stuff – from January 2005 to March 31, 2006 has been incorporated into this Third Edition. Login Panel (for Updates page): www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/login-panel.html Username and password for the Updates page are listed on page 2 of this manual.

Four Types Of Readers in 2006 Since I am sending this Third Edition to everyone on my customer list for free or at a discount, I suspect most readers of this updated manual fall into one of four categories. 1. You’re a New Purchaser 2. You’re In The Early Stages Of Building Websites 3. You’ve Been Around Awhile But Have Gotten Off Track 4. You’re Well Into a Successful Website Publishing Career


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Why 2006?

1 - You’re A New Purchaser If you’ve recently purchased – in some cases only days ago – and haven’t yet got started, I’d suggest you that you begin the 8-Step program from the beginning. And, of course, you no longer need the first file you downloaded. (2005)

2 - You’re In The Early Stages Of Building Websites If you’re in the early stages of building your websites, I would suggest that a thorough read of the Third Edition. It will be a great review and will give you some additional insight as to what’s covered. Also, you may remember that in the 2002 and 2005 editions of this training, I recommended to readers that they use FrontPage to construct and publish their sites. FrontPage is still a top-notch web-publishing option, one I still use myself; however, in this Third Edition, I provide another exciting publishing tool that, after thoroughly reviewing this manual, many students will undoubtedly want to use. And for those who want to continue using FrontPage, I suggest you read through the new techniques I outline as I discuss the new publishing tool and simply apply these using FrontPage. Of course, if students want to start fresh with the new publishing tool (which is available for a 10-day free trial), I recommend that they back-up a little and start again at Step 1. Sure, these students will be able to blast through the training. But they will also find lots and lots of new, helpful information - for I introduce several exciting new concepts in this third edition.


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Why 2006?

3 - You’ve Been Around Awhile But Have Gotten Off Track All of my readers – those most recent AND those from 2002 and 2005 have been invited to download 2006 for free, or at a discount. Understandably, some people may have gotten off-track, often due to the busy lifestyles many of us lead. If this is your case, I would like to encourage you to begin again. Trust me, I have witnessed marvelous incomes develop out of this new type of business – and the trend of online shopping, which drives everything, shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, online Christmas shopping for the 2005 holiday season exceeded already very merry forecasts, up 25% from the previous year, with online shoppers spending nearly $20 billion in Nov. and Dec. alone. Looking back, 2005 saw online consumers spend over $82 billion throughout the entire calendar year, up a staggering 26.5% from 2004, when consumers spent just over $62 billion online. And next year YOU can have a small piece of that pie, but only if you get going! If this review rekindles your desire to begin again, then I highly suggest you get a $10 monthly buzz subscription (my twice-a-month audio newsletter) – as insurance.

www.affiliate-buzz.com


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Why 2006?

4 - You’re Well Into A Successful Website Publishing Career Hopefully my original training was a contributing factor to your publishing success. Many have written to say it was. If this is your case, I’d like to thank you for buying my training in the first place – and suggest you simply review the third edition now… There is some real good stuff here, and lots of tasty tidbits scattered throughout. In fact, I assure you that if you digin, you will find some very helpful nuggets of information. As you will see, some of the concepts I outline will already be very well known, others may not be. The real value in this third edition is the organization – in a logical, step-by-step format that provides a strong reference point, as well as introducing several new tools. And, please send an email to me about your success (if you haven’t already done so). It really makes my day to hear about people winning with this! Send testimonials: [email protected]


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A An nO w ooff A Ovveerrvviieew Affffiilliiaattee M ng g Maarrkkeettiin

Amazon’s not a jungle anymore Although Amazon.com in now a household word, very few know that it spawned an entire Industry in 1996 when it granted independent webmasters permission to market its books online. Amazon’s technical people devised a code that would easily and automatically track sales from thousands of independent websites – and pay a monthly commission to each Webmaster. They were soon imitated, creating a sensation in the advertising and marketing world, as companies large and small sought to maximize profits with this unique pay-forperformance model. As of this writing, there are thousands of companies in several hundred different industries that will pay commissions to independent webmasters for leads, registrations, or sales.

Go shopping for merchants With the recent emergence of ‘commission networks’, – companies that act as go-betweens for merchants and affiliates, – it has never been easier to get involved, whether you want to get product to the marketplace or whether you are seeking to represent products on your website.


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An Overview of Affiliate Marketing

To the affiliates, these commission networks provide a valuable service by collecting the money from merchants and consolidating the affiliates’ reporting and payments. To the merchants, they solve the technical headaches, as well as eliminating the need to recruit their own associates by providing a virtual army of eager affiliates. One of these networks, Commission Junction (CJ), which is out of Santa Barbara CA, was recently purchased by ValueClick for a whopping $58 million, which just goes to show you the direction in which we are heading. (I’ll give you a hint here: it’s looking very profitable.) Similarly, LinkShare, out of New York, another commission network, was recently purchased by Japan-based Rakuten for a mind-boggling $425 million. Need I say more? Both of these networks, and many others (ShareaSale, Netshops, Link Connector, Affiliate Fuel, ClickBank, ClixGalore, etc.) act as trusted third parties, managing the network, tracking and reporting activity in real-time, and handling monthly commission payments. When a visitor to an affiliate’s website clicks on one of the merchant’s links, a “cookie” is set on the visitor’s browser that identifies the affiliate, the merchant, and the specific link and payment rates. Upon recording the transaction, these networks handle all of the collection and processing required to ensure fair and timely commission payment for the affiliate, and all of the administrative and verification necessary to ensure qualified sales and leads for the merchant. Every week, dozens of new merchants (also known as “advertisers”) join because of the vast numbers of affiliated publishers in their networks.

eBay and other corporate giants cash-in on pay-for-performance – and you can, too! eBay, The World's Online Marketplace®, has built a community of individuals and businesses from all over the © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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world who buy and sell goods and services online. In fact, eBay is one of the most popular shopping sites on the Internet. And perhaps the single largest driving force behind eBay’s success is performance-based advertising, which has enabled eBay to continually generate new customers and grow its member base to unimaginable numbers. And eBay is not alone. Other corporate giants like American Express, Discovery Channel, Disney, National Geographic, Dell, Wal-Mart, Apple and Yahoo, to name a few (there are hundreds of thousands), have flocked to the Net and are tapping into pay-for-performance models to catapult their business to new heights of success. How does this affect you? These companies and countless others like them will pay you to help them sell their products and services online – through your affiliate website. And this all boils down to big bucks. This is exactly what eBay did to position itself as THE online shopping and auction site. In fact, eBay’s success was so grand (and happened so fast) that other businesses – within the Fortune 500 arena and beyond, took note and are following suite, claiming like success. So if you have any doubts about the enormity of the opportunity before you and how much your work-at-home efforts will be appreciated (and compensated) by some very large companies in well-established arenas, I urge you to think again! This is the real deal, folks!


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“Know-how” rules In today’s Internet age, any web entrepreneur, whether merchant or affiliate, armed with the knowledge taught in this manual, can dominate their marketplace in fairly quick fashion once they become adept with the terminology and procedures. You see, unlike traditional methods of advertising and marketing, merchandisers who embrace affiliate marketing do not have to invest a great deal of money on promotion or training a sales force - because consumers are now flocking to the Internet in droves to buy everything from office supplies to cigars to baby clothes. The trick for most advertisers or merchants is finding the traffic. And, that’s where affiliated publishers come in. As a rule these publishers already have traffic. So, by placing banners or text links for relevant merchants on their sites, these publishers drive customers to merchants (also known as “advertisers”), who would otherwise have not reached those consumers. Or, if they did, would have had an up-front customer acquisition cost, which is usually quite high. Here’s a typical merchant/affiliate scenario: Let’s say a person has a web site dedicated to exotic travel. And, being successful at building a search engine friendly site, has established fairly high rankings - so that people surfing for ‘exotic travel’ tend to land on this site. Do you think this Webmaster could be of service to his visitor by offering links to a few good online travel agencies that specialize in exotic destinations? I think so. And, there are many such agencies with affiliate programs. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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What about travel clothing? Or passport services? Or travel insurance? Can you see the opportunity here? As a successful publisher, you can join several relevant programs in the above category and pick and choose the merchants you’d like to feature, based on how well they pay or the strength of their conversion rates. And as an entry-level person, you will learn all you need to know in this manual about how-to publish search engine friendly sites in any category you choose, regardless of whether you are new to a given industry, or not. Actually, the research part of the project is no more difficult than writing a grade nine high school paper.

How about credit card companies sending YOU a check for a change? My best Credit Card offer pays $40US per approved application. And, my best Satellite TV offer pays $50US. As you may guess, each of these advertisers has prime positioning on their respective sites. And, it’s so simple to add or remove merchants. As the publisher, you are in complete control. Do not be concerned if you’ve never published anything in your life before. Neither had I. And, I do better than most. You see, I’ve learned to keep it simple. And “simple” works.


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Times they-are-a-changing If you are willing to follow my lead exactly as it’s laid out in this manual, then you, too, will succeed. You see, this industry is still in its infancy. So getting started “on the ground floor,” so to speak, could be quite rewarding if you are diligent. And, there are a number of trends pointing to many years of continued growth: 1. Companies reducing marketing costs as a way to survive in tough economic times 2. Dramatically increasing use of the Internet 3. People cocooning 4. Computer literate people seeking legitimate workat-home options 5. Start-up entrepreneurs and merchandisers seeking low-cost distribution channels 6. Growing consumer confidence in online shopping 7. Fortune 500 companies embracing Affiliate Marketing 8. Technological advances across the board 9. The desire for people to move away from congested cities 10. The use of search engines as the primary way that people find relevant websites on any imaginable subject 11. Emerging “affiliate networks” that act as gobetweens, making it easier to participate for both affiliates and publishers


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Show me the money Most affiliate programs offer a two-tiered plan. Usually, the bulk of the commission is paid on the first-tier to the publisher who makes the sale. But, if this publisher has recruited a sub-affiliate, then a smaller commission is also paid whenever a second-tier sale is made. This recruitment usually takes place on the Internet, as publishers seeking products and services to represent find the merchandisers’ affiliate program join links. All of my sites feature an ‘affiliate program’ link for this reason. Joining a bona-fide affiliate program is totally free and there are no personal purchase requirements. Some programs offer a sliding scale of ascending commissions based on volume, but most simply pay a flat fee - anywhere from a buck or two, all the way up to hundreds of dollars, depending on the industry and what is required by the consumer.

Step forward and count yourself in Although there will always be a place for so called brick-nmortar businesses, there will be no putting-the-genieback-in-the-bottle with this one. So I encourage you to really dig into this manual and take advantage of the opportunity to be a front-runner in a brand new industry. Unlike most books and courses on affiliate programs, this tutorial provides complete instructions for both novices and web-savvy types. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions provided and you, too, will position yourself for financial success on the Internet. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I wish you well!

PS – Please read, Getting The Most From This Manual first. It offers important guidelines that help ensure get the maximum benefit from this course.


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G Geettttiin ng gT hee M Th mT Moosstt FFrroom hiiss M nu uaall Th Maan Desired Outcome At the completion of this course… …you will have your own professional looking website, ranked highly at the search engines, offering visitors valuable, well written content, -which also features a select group of merchants who will PAY you whenever one of YOUR visitors completes a transaction with THEM.

There’s danger in dem der hill-o-words. As you know, this manual is not a theoretical rambling about affiliate marketing, but a proven path to success based on the techniques I use every day. While learning-the-ropes of this industry, I read all that I could on the subject, but ultimately concluded that much that was written was counter-productive (or dated). The hazard for anyone wishing to know more about building their own commercial websites and prospering with affiliate marketing can be summed up in one word… …overwhelm. Have you been there? I know I have.


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Getting The Most From This Manual

So, I would caution you to remain FOCUSED on this manual while learning. And, complete the 8-steps sequentially, because the logic of each only makes sense AFTER the previous step is completed. If you do this, I can assure you that you’ll avoid the brainnumbing experiences that I had while trying to figure this thing out by simultaneously studying the works of numerous Internet ‘experts’.

Are you a Newbie or a Guru? My guess is that most readers of this manual will either be “newbies” who are totally unfamiliar with the language of Internet-based affiliate marketing programs, or be someone who has dabbled in this industry for a while, but has never yet reached the achievement level desired. I would also bet that some are quite savvy with computers, while others are not. No matter where you see yourself along the spectrum of newbie-to-guru, I can assure you that you will be amazed at the simplicity of my methods. That’s because I teach fundamentals. You will learn only the essentials. This means, I will assume nothing about your current knowledge and experience – except that you want the financial freedom that’s possible when succeeding with affiliate marketing.

Do simple things repeatedly The great NFL football coach, Vince Lombardi, used to stand before his team at the beginning of training camp each year with a football in his hands and say, “Gentlemen, THIS is a football. Our goal is to get THIS


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ball over THAT line and prevent THEM from doing the same.” Of course, it gets more complicated than that in the NFL, just as it does in affiliate marketing. But, if we focus on learning (and re-learning) the basics, as Lombardi taught, then we increase our chances of winning in any endeavor requiring the application of knowledge. So, if I get overly simplistic (and repetitive), please remember the great Lombardi.

Get a birds-eye view first Before starting your training, it will be useful to print and preview the entire manual before actually implementing any of the 8-steps. This will provide a context and give you a sense of where you are headed. This printed version will also be a good place to scribble notes. And, I recommend that you have it spiral bound with a plastic cover for easy portability and aesthetics.

Celebrate success As you peruse each module, pay special attention to the desired outcome of each section. The achievements of these important outcomes indicate whether or not you are on course. By reaching these milestones, you will not only move yourself closer to your ULTIMATE goal, but you will also build confidence and a winning attitude, which are both crucial to your success. In my live sessions, prior to getting started each week, I would ask the students to recap the previous week’s activities. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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It was always thrilling for me to witness and share in their pride of accomplishment. But more importantly, it allowed them to acknowledge their own progress in public, which fortified their belief in themselves. Even students who initially thought they were in-overtheir-heads, soon arrived at a point where you could almost see the ‘lights go on’ and hear them say to themselves, “YESSSS, I can DO this”! So, please take the time to acknowledge yourself at each step of the way. In actual fact, you will be learning insider secrets that very few know about. So, give yourself a pat-on-the-back after the successful completion of each module. Heck, you may even want to buy yourself something special, as a reward, at every step-of-the-way! Do whatever it takes to keep yourself motivated, because there will invariably be times when the frustration level grows – which is the case in learning any new skill… …especially when working with technology in a brand new, ever-changing industry, – alone, from a manual.

Set a schedule When training my classes in Vancouver, we used to hold the sessions over the course of three consecutive Tuesdays and provide a list of things for them to do as homework assignments. I believe that much of the success achieved by many of my Vancouver students can be attributed to the fact that they were on a schedule. You, however, are on your own.


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So I encourage you to set a pace for yourself before you begin. There is no reason why all readers should not have a fully functioning website on the Net within a month (although the income usually takes a few months longer). Decide in advance what time of the day you’ll get on your computer (without distractions). And also determine which days of the week are best. Then stick to it.

Set realistic goals Although I do extremely well at this now, I’ll confess that I struggled for the first 6-months. And, when the Free ISP business began fading into oblivion, I sold our family’s second vehicle to stay afloat while I ventured into affiliate marketing in a serious way with Satellite TV and Credit Cards. So, please don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting too much, too soon. Now, having said that, I think you will go much faster than I did because you now possess a blueprint, which I didn’t have. After I saw the potential of this business I set the goal of earning $100 per day. That’s $3,000 per month, which is very realistic. When I reached this target, I doubled my goal to $200 per day. And, when I reached that benchmark, I set a new goal. This is my recommended approach.


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Timelines for success Normally, it takes between 4-6 weeks to become indexed by the search engines after your site is built. So, if it takes you a month to build a site, you probably won’t see revenues for three to four months. And, it usually starts in a trickle, then builds to a steady pace as your rankings mature and bookmarked visitors return. Yet, many of my students are reporting much faster results because of the new techniques I teach on establishing inbound links for optimal rankings. So, it’s hard to say for sure how soon you will make money. To some extent, we are at the mercy of the search engines in this regard. So be patient.

You’ll be on the Internet a lot This is an action manual. That’s what sets it apart from the rest. In each module, you’ll be provided with screenshots of OTHER sites that you will need to visit on a regular basis to complete this website building process. Although I give detailed instructions on how I specifically utilize these services, you will eventually need to broaden your knowledge in those areas by going beyond my instructions. As you will learn in Step #1, How-to Get (and stay) Organized, you should get a binder and a three-hole punch.


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Into this binder will go as much printed material from these sites as necessary to ensure that you have easy reference points when attempting to gain clarity on a puzzling procedure. As many of you probably already know, one of the Internets’ most frustrating aspects is the lack of uniform jargon. For instance, some refer to affiliates as publishers; others call us resellers or Webmasters. In some cases, merchants are known as advertisers, vendors, and so on. For a Newbie this can be terribly confusing. So, make it a point to linger a bit on the sites that I send you to and get familiar with their lingo, – but only as it relates to the specific task you are completing. The trick is to broaden your knowledge and familiarity with specific procedures and terminology without swamping yourself with confusion. And only you can know where that balance point is.

First things first I purposely narrow your focus during the 8-step process of this manual. But, I DO want you to know of other resources. For this reason I have included an appendix of recommended resources at the back. However, it might be counter-productive for you to dabble there UNTIL you’ve completed the program. Trust me on this. There is a lot to learn within the 8-steps themselves, – and premature attempts to broaden your knowledge too quickly might become counterproductive. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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It’s imperative, while learning, that you first use ONLY the resources described in each step, because I can’t be there to guide you or answer questions if you attempt to do too much, too fast. Once you have completed the 8-step process, though, you will probably amaze yourself at how proficient you have become, and how easily you will integrate new knowledge. So, once again, I recommend patience. It’s incremental learning that will take you to where you want to go, – not fast tracking.

Using Acrobat features As most readers are aware, Adobe, which publishes a family of document creation software, also publishes FREE software to view these documents. Since you are reading this Portable Document Format – PDF file – you obviously have Acrobat Reader. I suggest you upgrade to the latest version if you don’t already have it. Here’s a link: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html Once installed, I’d encourage you to become better acquainted with Adobe Reader. Here is a short list of features I suggest you use: 1. Whenever you find information you might want to review make a written note of its page number – so that you can quickly go to that page later. You do this by going to the bottom taskbar and enter the desired page number. First select the current number and then type the new number. That will take you instantly to your desired page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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2. Another great feature is the “read-out-loud” function. Now, of course, I can’t be sure that your processor can take advantage of this – and you’ll have to contact Adobe about this for any recommendations. But if it works it’s a great way to review the material with your speakers. Now there are some annoying aspects; for, instance it mispronounces many words and repeats footer or header information for every page. But I highly recommend it. It’s actually hilarious to listen to. And you can change the speech properties (Edit – Preferences – Reading). You can quickly and easily switch from a man to a woman, alter the words-per-minute, or pitch. The screenshot that follows shows you how to find the Read Out Loud function.


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3. And if you want to review something you can easily search the entire PDF document for every instance where I used your query. (Edit – Search) Or use the search button on the top taskbar if you have the later versions.

So get familiar with Adobe Reader. By using their help function – or by doing Google searches with any question you may have about Adobe Reader – you’ll learn a lot more.

Using the video tutorials As you know, my Third Edition comes with an additional component – video tutorials of where I actually demonstrate a number of the Baby steps detailed in the handbook. The purpose of these video demonstrations is to provide important supplemental training and increased clarity by you watching me walk you through the more challenging processes. You can access these videos, and a printable Index, on my password protected “updates” page. And, no need to watch the videos now, that will come later as you progress through the training. Login Panel (for Updates page): www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/login-panel.html

Username and password for the Updates page are listed on page 2 of this manual.


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Using recommended resources One of my business mentors, Hubert Humphrey, used to always tell us “become a student of the business”. I remember taking that statement to heart. And even though my association with Hubert is long over, I continually apply this “student of the business” mentality to everything I do. And although I consider it to be extremely important to “follow the 8-step plan” carefully – especially if this is your first website – I also want to encourage you to become students of this business as well. And my list of recommended resources located in the back of this manual is a good place to begin expanding your knowledge once you’ve got a foundation. But don’t stop there. Once you are comfortable with publishing revenuegenerating websites – start looking around. Try to become better at what you do. TEST things. Attend conferences. I guess I’m saying that each reader needs to use my training as the starting point for a new career – and not simply clone everything you see me doing. For instance, some of my readers discovered they had a preference for design work – and so instead of focusing exclusively on “affiliate” sites, began studying web design – which led to a lucrative home-based business outside of the “affiliate model” I teach. She had become a student of the business. Another reader used his newly acquired skills to sell real estate – and boosted his realtor income dramatically.


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His sites routinely outrank the parent company. He had become a student of the business. And in several cases, I’ve heard from those who teamedup with others – splitting the writing and web management functions between them. One such team recently bought their own server rather than use my hosting recommendations. They had become a student of the business. So once you get your feet wet and are getting the revenue flowing, I encourage you to spread your wings a bit. Innovate and get good at what you do. It’ll pay off BIG time!

Affiliate Buzz audio newsletter By May 2003, the manual had been out for a year. At the time, some were suggesting a “user forum” for students – but I resisted that idea because usually that’s the last thing people need when trying to succeed online. It’s been my experience that forums can often become counterproductive energy drains – often filled with meaningless chatter, rumor and falsehoods. And it was my experience that people didn’t need MORE information or idle opinion anyway. What they really needed was an example of success and many reminders to stay-the-course.

How the buzz was born The “buzz” concept was born one day as Charles and I were discussing my affiliate business.


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Since the very beginning, we often talked by phone about the many ups and downs of my business. To coin the title of a Clint Eastwood movie classic, we talked about the good, the bad and the UGLY! And we thought it would be excellent feedback and reinforcement for readers if they could “listen-in” on these calls – because we both felt it would keep them plugged into the industry – especially during the critical start up phase (when students are more “at risk” of giving up). Of course, we don’t actually record impromptu calls. Instead – on a two-week schedule – we review what’s been happening in my business and personal life in the prior two weeks, then break it down into three segments: 1) Inspiration, 2) Information and 3) Motivation. Then we talk for 30 minutes while a professional recording is made by a studio out of Austin, Texas. After that, our production engineer, Denis Bernicky out of Montreal, Canada, adds our intro and signoff before sending out an email announcement to subscribers.

By most accounts, the buzz has been a great success! Although some are less enthusiastic about the overtly “motivational” theme, the vast majority tell us repeatedly that they look forward to each show. Many have said it truly kept them going until the income started flowing – and that ALWAYS makes my day. And I always include interesting tidbits of pertinent, timely reminders and updates to make sure we are all on the same page. You can either stream these 30-minute shows in Real One, Windows Media Player OR download to your computer.


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Remarkably, some tell us they burn them to CD’s for listening in the car or play them in their iPod or MP3 player. As an incentive to get the buzz now – you may request a free copy of my Hiring Authors report after subscribing, as part of my “book n’ buzz” combo offer. Buzz Subscription: $10/mo (paid monthly, cancelable anytime) www.affiliate-buzz.com Request FREE Hiring Authors report here: [email protected]

Become resourceful Although my customer support people are available to handle technical issues concerning the download of this manual, or refunds, they are not qualified to answer questions about affiliate marketing. And, I don’t do one-on-one training, – so you’ll need to become resourceful whenever you get stuck. What was invaluable to me as I grew in competence, was knowing when to stop struggling with something, – and just get away from the computer. I also developed a network of friends and associates who could answer simple computer, Windows, or Internetrelated questions. I encourage you to do the same. And, as many know, before preparing a downloadable training, I taught in a workshop setting. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I learned a lot then about the importance of preparing people to succeed after the class was over. Regrettably, some in my live classes had developed an “attitude of dependency”, which I feared would not serve readers very well in the long run. I knew this would be especially detrimental for readers without access to personal coaching. So in this manual I continually encourage readers to use the training as a self-teaching guide and from there to build on their new found knowledge. Thankfully, most readers took to heart my admonishments to become resourceful. Over the years, very few emailed with questions that could have easily been answered with a review of the manual, a search in our support desk database, or by doing a Google search. But now I’d like to encourage you to take your resourcefulness to the next level. You see, – although I want you to follow the 8-steps precisely, there is also some wiggle room. My accountant likes to use the term “wiggle room”, which I find hilarious. And indeed, thankfully, there is plenty of wiggle room in my financial affairs these days. And yours too, I might add, if you get serious about this. Below are some examples of how to take what I teach to the next level. Examples: I show you how to do a search for potential merchants. And I actually walk you through the process of choosing a merchant and inserting their ad copy. But this is training-wheel stuff. With the knowledge of how to do this, you can now go to another commission network and get their ad copy – even though they might have different protocols. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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And do a Google search if you want other options – for instance you’d like to see if you could get a better commission with another merchant. You see some things are not set in stone. You’ve got wiggle room. Same with buying templates. As you may know, in 2002 I featured a local designer. Now I feature a server-side publishing tool. And if you are more comfortable with using FrontPage or Dreamweaver as your publishing tool – go for it. Or if you prefer Mac’s – then you’ll need to workaround some of my advice, which is based on my use of PC’s. And if you want you could just as easily use a server-side (I.e. ez-WebBuilder, Site Build It”) publishing tool if it provides enough flexibility. This is what I mean by becoming “resourceful”. Now everyone’s situation is different. Some are totally new to most things dealing with publishing websites – and these people should stick closely to the plan. But for anyone who has gained some proficiency – either with my training or with someone else’s – I’d encourage you to attempt to discern when it’s appropriate to “experiment” a bit. I never intended that my readers should be clones of each other either. I can’t tell you how often I see sites that are almost exact copies of my examples. In fact, Lynne Robson, the lady who sells FrontPage templates, eventually removed from her catalogue the example I used for demonstration purposes because it was being “over ordered”. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Follow the plan – yes – but as you develop also become a “student of the business”. Do things in your OWN way. THAT will serve you best in the long term.

On your mark, get set… The first module, How To Get (and stay) Organized, requires some shopping for supplies, so you might want to wait until you have a complete afternoon of uninterrupted time before beginning in earnest. When you arrive back with your supplies, please take a few minutes to review these first few chapters, in order to set-the-stage before starting. Then GO for it!


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S Stteep p# 1 #1 H Hoow w ttoo G nd d ssttaayy)) O Geett ((aan gaan niizzeed d Orrg Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …Your workspace will be equipped with the physical resources needed to run your business and you will have a basic set of software tools and procedures to assist you in better managing important details.

Whoops, I forgot! In the winter of 2000-2001, after I began a serious effort to make online publishing a success, I quickly learned that if I didn’t organize myself I could easily become sidetracked. An important turning point occurred one rainy afternoon in February of that year. I went to the login area of one of my merchant/advertising accounts, – which is a password protected area accessible to affiliates only, – to obtain some status reports, but could not remember my username and password. I notified them and they replied with the correct info. But the delay was both frustrating and unnecessary. Later that month, I wanted to move my existing domain name from my current website hosting company to © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #1 - How to Get (and stay) Organized

another, when I again realized I couldn’t remember my passcodes. But, this new situation wasn’t as easily resolved. That’s because in the month prior, I had changed my email address. And, they would only send new codes to the email address I had on file. So, I had to prove that I owned my domain name by having my birth certificate and photo I.D. notarized and sent by courier to California. What a hassle that was.

Necessity is the mother of invention So, that evening I developed a better plan to stay organized. And over the many months that have followed, I have refined my methods, so that I rarely encounter these embarrassing and time-consuming situations. And now, building new sites is less stressful and faster because I have a basic operational system. In this chapter I will outline some easy steps I use to stay organized. Each is deceptively simple, – but essential, – so please do not skip these procedures. (Especially if you like to fly-bythe-seat-of-your-pants.) And keep in mind, if you truly want to be proficient with online publishing and expand beyond the scope of a single website, then you should continually expand upon these procedures and personalize them to suit your needs and your unique situation. They are only offered here as a starting point, or a foundation from which you can build; and as a way to focus your attention on menial tasks that will hopefully form good organizational habits - which will dramatically improve your chances of success. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #1: Shop for Supplies Get the following: (unless you have them) •

Three-ring binder

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A dozen or so divider tabs (numbers okay because you’ll customize them)

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Three-hole punch

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Computer (one you’re happy with)

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Word processor (I.e. Microsoft Notepad)

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Windows 98 (or higher)

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Printer (lots of ink and paper)

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Stapler

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Internet connection (High-Speed or Dial-Up)

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Spiral Notebook (thick with pouches)

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Other basic office supplies, such as file folders, comfortable chair, lamps, hanging files, paper clips, etc.

Baby step #2: Set-up the Affiliate Organizer The Affiliate Organizer is a software program that was developed by Jon Mills, a reader of mine, who intuitively saw the need for this, and I couldn’t be more thankful. It’s not essential, but because you will need to track usernames, passwords, control panel logins, serial numbers, keyword lists, domain name renewal dates, advertisers, memberships, outsourced work and the like, you can free up your time so you can focus your efforts on making money, not searching for stuff that should be at your fingertips.


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In short, it’s a one-stop source for any online publisher, keeping all the information needed to run a successful publishing business in one place and available with just the click of a mouse. And, if you’ve ever lost data before, you know what a lifesaver this can be. Affiliate Organizer gives you the flexibility to create your own folders and sub-folders so you can organize the program in a way that works best for you. Each folder contains input fields appropriate to that topic, with a Notes field as well to record any additional information you may want to keep. All you do is input the information and save it – simple as that! Affiliate Organizer also includes a Task/Alerts feature to remind you of important jobs to be done or appointments to be kept, either by email, sound, or both. And the best part about Affiliate Organizer is that it's all at your fingertips – no more searching through spreadsheets, documents or text files, or in my case, spiral bound note books, for that password or code – it's right there on your desktop. Not only do I recommend this piece of software, I would say that it will help you dramatically in your efforts to win in this exciting and emerging industry. This software is just that good. www.affiliateorganizer.net

*Video tutorials for the Affiliate Organizer are available on the Updates page. (see page 2) © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #3: Set-up your Internet start page You should know upfront that I attribute much of my online success to MY Internet start page. More specifically, I am convinced that my start page is one of the main reasons my family and I enjoy the lifestyle we now do – my income, our home, numerous trips, and my dream-of-a-lifetime car. Admittedly, when I started my expectations weren’t that high. After all, I was a newbie and not sure what to expect, so I set my sights on making $100 a day. Across the top of my start page, I listed my goal of making $3,000 a month. Every time I sat down at my computer, I saw that goal. Before I knew it, I was there! Of course, I set a new goal and updated my start page to reflect this – a new goal of $5,000 per month. I hit that and set a new goal of $30,000 a month and hit that and so on, and so on. Two years ago, I decided I really wanted to go on a cruise, something I had never done before. Making this a new goal, I added a photo of a cruise ship to my start page. And, before I knew it, I was there – with Arlene. And since our first cruise, we have taken two more. The last cruise we took was to the beautiful Eastern Caribbean and we took our four kids along for a memorable 10 days at sea. I also added a photo of a 1965 Shelby Cobra to my start page, for owning one of these has been a life-long © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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dream of mine. Today, the cobra is no longer on my start page – it’s parked in my garage! The point is this: customizing your start page is a simple process – one that can yield huge results. In fact, when Arlene and I attended the recent Affiliate Summit, we ran into countless students who told us the start page really helped them achieve their dreams. And, I can’t say enough about the time and effort it saves you – everything you need, links to the sites you frequent and your goals – right in front of you every time you open a new browser. Let’s take a few minutes now to create a special start page that allows you to have links to all of the sites you visit regularly – and allows you to be reminded of your goals (and your achievements) every day! What you see below is my start page.

Notice that I not only have the links that I need, but my goals listed in plain site, as well.


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Sure, we all hear about how having our goals written out and in front of us and how this will help us achieve them; trust me here, it’s true. What’s more, I am living proof of this! This single “tool” has helped me attain success at levels I only previously dreamed about, and continues to propel me to even higher levels of success as I work to further grow my online publishing business. So, take a few minutes right now to put your most visited links and your goals on your own Internet start page. NOTE: This service is set for launch May 15th. If you would like to receive notification by email, please visit the site. www.my-start-page.net

Baby step #4: Set-up browser folders Now, we’ll open Explorer (my preferred web browser) and set up a few new folders for the many bookmarks you will create as you progress. Click the favorites tab at the top of your page and click ‘organize favorites’. Once that box opens you can choose to create a new folder. That’s what you will do first. You will create a few folders just to get started. And, you can add more as you advance through the course. Or rename them as you see fit. First create your main folder. Name it “Affiliate Marketing” for now. Then, create a few sub-folders. Below is a helpful screenshot to illustrate the process. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Eventually you will add many folders and rename them as you gain clarity. But start with the process described below to gain familiarity and establish a good habit. This is ‘browser tips’ 101. •

Affiliate Marketing o Merchants o Sites of Interest o Suppliers

If you have never given much thought to organizing your bookmarks, then this new procedure will definitely make your life easier as your business grows.

Baby step #5: Set-up folders to manage your email Similarly, you will need to set up folders to handle business-related email. Early on I used Outlook Express as the preferred email organizer; however, I find that Gmail by Google works better for me. Gmail is web-based email, which allows users to access it from anywhere. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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What’s more, you never delete emails (no matter when they were sent or received). Instead, emails are neatly arranged and archived in nifty electronic file folders. All emails are accessible by using a Google keyword search and each is grouped with all of its replies and displayed as a “conversation.” And, there are no pop-ups or untargeted banners. Signing up for Gmail account is a little tricky. The only way you can get one is to be invited by someone who already has one. So, if you kow someone who can refer you, you may want to ask for an invite. Of course, if you want to use your existing email server, that’s just fine. Why don’t we take a quick tour of Gmail just so you understand more about web-based email? Begin now, by logging onto Gmail and setting up your account. You can also apply the following steps to your existing email account. gmail.google.com Then, you can create three sub-folders as outlined below. Gmail calls them labels. Call one “Passcodes” and the other two “Receipts – Not Yet Printed” and “Receipts – Printed & Filed”.


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As you begin to sign-up for services that help you to run your business, you will need to have a place to efficiently sort and store the important usernames and passcodes, which you will receive by email. Having a place for receipts is also important. There have been many times that I’ve had to show proof of purchase when troubleshooting a problem. As your business grows, and you take on advertisers, please get into the habit of creating a separate folder for each advertiser within your main folder. Then, as you receive email announcements from them, you can use the label and archive them into the appropriate folder. This will quickly allow you to move the message out of your Inbox into the designated folder. By doing this, you will help to avoid clutter in your Inbox, which, if left unchecked, can easily lead to overwhelm. But, please be creative when designing folders to handle the many routine emails you will receive. It is also important to file the login information your advertisers send you so that you have quick access to commission reports, advertising creative, etc. You will also want to bookmark these “long” URL’s for convenience, as you will see outlined below. Once approved as an affiliate, the merchant/advertiser will send you a welcome letter with a link to their login area. By not filing them right away, you are probably setting yourself up for problems. I am in the habit of stopping whatever I’m doing whenever receiving this info and filing it appropriately. Here are my simple rules for staying on top of this:


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1. Stop what you are doing when a merchant welcome letter arrives. (It’s tempting to say, “I’ll get to it later”.) 2. Open the email message, and apply the Gmail label and move it out of your Inbox to an appropriate folder. (As you learned how-to do above) 3. Open the email and print it. 4. Then, stick it into a file folder labeled with the name of the merchant. Then file it according to whatever system you use for your paper records. 5. Go to their login area by clicking on the link provided in the text of the email, – then immediately bookmark the login address – which are often very long, – for easy access later. 6. If the merchant has automatically assigned you a username and/or passcode, then you will need to change it right away to the one that you’ve chosen. The importance of this is covered below, in Baby Step #8.

Baby step #6: Determine your business address If you are a non-resident of the United States you may want to get a U.S. address. It’s not essential, but some advertisers prefer dealing with U.S. based publishers. That does not mean you have to be an American or live in the States. You simply need a U.S. address. It’s perfectly legal. The site below will allow you to establish a U.S. address for you at a reasonable fee. www.letterlock.com Note to U.S. residents: It’s a good idea for you to set up an account at a mail service like MailBoxes Etc. for security, privacy and mobility reasons. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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www.mbe.com

Baby step #7: Organize your banking Again, if you are a non-U.S. resident, you may want to open an American currency bank account in your own country, since commissions are paid in U.S. dollars. And if you visit the United States, I suggest you stop by a major bank while there and open a business checking account with your new U.S. address. And, as a matter of proper accounting, you should never co-mingle personal and business funds. As a Canadian, I easily set up an account with an American bank without a social security number as a foreign depositor. Both offer excellent online service and greatly simplify managing my publishing revenue. And funds can easily be withdrawn from any ATM worldwide with the VISA check card the U.S. bank provided. This VISA debit card (also known as a debit card) acts like a credit card, but only allows withdrawals up to your account balance. A very handy device for those who like the convenience and prestige of having a VISA or MasterCard, without the problems associated with spending borrowed money.

Baby step #8: Choose a username and passcode With a pen and paper determine a permanent username and passcode. In this business, having multiple passcodes can easily become a nightmare. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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So think of an 8-digit username with both letters and numbers. By doing this, you will have the best chance at using the same username and passcodes for all applications. The goal here is to have a SINGLE username that can be used for EVERYTHING from this point forward. Do the same for the passcode. I suggest you use 4 letters and 4 numbers in each. To make it easy to remember, reverse the order when going from username to passcode. But, be careful of using one that others may have. For example, MARK1237 runs the risk of being taken. So, don’t choose a name like this. But, by using the SAME numbers and letters, you could use 12MARK37. Then, reverse the letters for your passcode. I.e.: 37MARK12. In many cases a username is not necessary, – just a passcode. But, often both ARE needed. So, you need to be prepared. In my mind, I always think of the username FIRST, as in, “username and passcodes”. This makes it easy to remember which is which. Trust me on this. It WILL make your life easier on the Net, especially, since you are now using it as a business. So, take the time to do this. When decided, place them in your three-ring binder. Important: When assigned a password by someone else, – login and change it to your preferred passcodes right away. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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To get you started, – once you’ve chosen your permanent username and passcode, – you may want to change as many of your current codes as possible.

Baby step #9: Set-up a form-filling service Sign-up right away for a free trial of service offered below. As a Webmaster, you will often be required to fill out tedious forms. By joining RoboForm, you’ll have the option of letting RoboForm fill them in for you.

Now, before proceeding to the next step, I encourage you set-up the RoboForm software on your computer by simply walking through the download process. This is important and you do not want to continue moving forward without a good understanding of RoboForm and how it can save you immeasurable amounts of time and effort! www.roboform.com


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Baby step #10: Upgrade your browser Get the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. www.microsoft.com

Baby step #11: Set-up a PayPal account PayPal is fast becoming a standard for exchanging money on the Internet, – with 86 million account members worldwide. PayPal is available in 56 countries and regions.

Not only will it come in handy for possibly receiving money as you pursue your online career, – but you will be needing it to purchase your template in Step #4, Ladies and Gentlemen – Set-up Your Site. Please take a few minutes to set up your own PayPal account now. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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www.paypal.com

Baby step #12: Managing your finances I remember getting into this business, fresh with high expectations and endless enthusiasm, which is good. And, like most of those just starting out, I was unsure if I could make this work and jumped in with both feet, but without any real plans. I worked hard and before I knew it, checks started rolling in. Of course, that’s the good news. Then, I made an appointment with my accountant and encourage you to do the same thing once the checks start to roll in. Your accountant will advise you on what is the best legal structure for you and your individual situation as it relates to taxes. Follow his advice. For me, and many others it seems, a Corporation often provides the most effective strategy to minimize taxes and maximize my liability protection. Doing business in your name as a sole proprietor means you may be paying a higher personal income tax rate, which isn’t necessary. A final heads-up here: Do not delay in taking this important step or you are sure to be giving more money to the taxman than he deserves.


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Preparing for the “ups” and “downs” Now, just a few more words of advice on managing your finances as you embark on this new and rewarding venture. Understand upfront that there are normal cycles of business and being prepared for this will save you a great deal of stress. For instance, if you are in the retail business, you can expect the largest percentage of income during the holiday shopping periods. Likewise, if you are in the weight loss business, your income will rise just after the start of the New Year when everyone is making resolutions and plans to lose weight. Or, if you are in the business of garden sheds or outdoor information/supplies, look for your peaks to occur in the spring. This said, make sure you do NOT increase your spending level to match these peaks. Keep in mind the natural web and flow of things and be prepared for your income to drop in the “off” seasons.

This business is like all others. Be prepared for the “down” times by saving during the “up” times. I’ve had these myself and have had to rely on my savings during the slower times. You don’t want to do this, so don’t go into this business expecting the growth curve to go straight up.


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And, in short, plan accordingly.

Baby step #13: Develop a realistic mindset If you are very new to the Internet or computers in general, then you will need to expect a certain amount of frustration. The rate of change on the Internet can be breathtaking and dealing with technical issues can often be a burden, – even for those with experience. So you will need to learn to relax when things seem overwhelming. Plus, do not set yourself up for failure by thinking you will get rich overnight. This is just not possible. Online publishing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires time, patience and the ability to step back, take a deep breath, re-evaluate and punt (but not too hard) – when needed. If you’re doing this part-time, while holding down a fulltime job, then it would be wise to set a realistic goal of, let’s say, $500/month for your first site. That amount is VERY realistic. And once achieved you can build from there. So take the time to complete the organizational steps I’ve outlined above, then sit down with someone close to you and write down a financial goal. Then give yourself a 6-month window of opportunity to achieve it.


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Baby step #14: Complete the checklist for Step #1 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #2, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – Shop for supplies Baby step #2 – Set-up Affiliate Organizer software Baby step #3 – Set-up your Internet start page Baby step #4 – Set-up browser folders Baby step #5 – Set-up folders to manage your email Baby step #6 – Determine your business address Baby step #7 – Organize your banking Baby step #8 – Choose a username and passcode Baby step #9 – Set-up a form filling service Baby step #10 – Upgrade your browser Baby step #11 – Set-up a PayPal account Baby step #12 – Manage your finances Baby step #13 – Develop a realistic mindset Baby step #14 – Complete this checklist

Once you have… …Your workspace equipped with the physical resources needed to run your business and you have a basic set of software tools and procedures in place to assist you in better managing important details, then… …You are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 2 #2 FFiin nd diin ng g tth hee R gh htt T piicc FFoorr Y Riig Toop u!! Yoou Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …You will have chosen at least three topics that interest you and offer from 3-6 good affiliate programs.

In the beginning – was a decision Although choosing a topic is a relatively simple step, it was one that many in my Vancouver workshop students stumbled on. Likewise, some of the readers of my handbook tell me they, too, stumbled over the hurdle of pinpointing an industry that could be both profitable and interesting. I’m sure that fear of failure played a part, but my guess is the primary reason was not being aware of the many different categories of products with lucrative affiliate programs available to them. Or realizing that they are not limited to only one topic, thereby thinking that the must get it right the very first time out. Sure, I understand the pressure associated with this and the desire to get it right the first time – this is why I expand on this important step this time around. With a better understanding of the importance and working together, you are going to get it right. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #2 - Finding the Right Topic For You!

You will need to follow my steps and complete the short exercises, watch the short video tutorial clips, and, of course, keep an open mind. But, the end result will be worth it – so just stick with me here. Now, just let me add this: I think some of this frustration about finding the right industry came from those who saw me succeeding in the Satellite TV, Cell Phone and Credit Card industries. They saw my success in these topics and joined me headfirst in the affiliate pool. This is fine, but since that time, the pool has gotten larger and deeper and has filled with swimmers (some sinking, simply treading water, and some happily floating on top) – leaving little or NO ROOM for anyone else. And, if it’s not going to be lucrative, why jump in? The truth is that these areas are now over saturated. So, the key to your success, and to mine, lies in our ability to uncover profitable topics that haven’t yet been exploited. And the good news is there is nearly an unlimited supply of them, if you are prepared to do a little research, use a little common sense, and follow my lead. In short, get ready to broaden your horizons, for I am convinced this is key to your success. And, I want to make sure you do this before progressing to Step #4, Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose Your Template. I share this next story with you so you will better understand my train of thought here: Arlene and the kids and I used to live near a bunch of chicken farms. I remember Arlene taking her Brownies and Girl Guides to go visit these farms. When they opened the barn doors, it was a sea of little yellow baby chicks. Thousands of them! One day the local newspaper printed a disturbing story about one of the chicken farms. It seems someone on a motorbike got too close to a barn full of baby chicks and, © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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scared for their lives, they all scrambled to the corner, piling up on top of each other. Hundreds, thousands maybe, died. Just like that. The little guys on the bottom didn’t make it. This is a good analogy of what has happened within many of the larger industries. Affiliates have piled into the same corner and, unfortunately, the ones on the bottom have no chance of survival. Learning about the many options available before beginning will also prepare you to get the most from the next step, Keywords Are The Building Blocks. So please take the time to go through each of the recommended baby steps that follow, – even if you are already familiar with affiliate programs and Google AdSense (which we get into more later). The brainstorming you will do could lead you down a whole new path – one that is exciting, fulfilling and financially rewarding.

A publisher’s role is simple Before you get into researching possible topics for your new website, I need to point out to you that, while your site is a portal of information and links, it should be written well enough and designed good enough that visitors “linger and learn.” Yes, the goal is to prompt the reader to move on to the advertiser by clicking on one of the ads (so you get paid), but you should know upfront that this requires strong, valuable copy. (“Copy” is an industry-related term that refers to the actual text placed on your site. This is why writers are frequently referred to as copywriters.) And, this is why I say we are in the publishing business.


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The truth is that the longer a visitor stays on the site, the more ads they will be exposed to. This increases your revenue-generating opportunities. Need I say more? It’s much like the print magazine business. If you open a magazine and read a single story, you are likely to just see one, maybe two, ads. But, if you flip through the entire publication, you will see an array of ads. And, of these, a handful or more will likely pique your interest. And, a few will prompt sales. The same holds true for your website. By providing valuable information, you increase the value of your site and your chances of making money. Of course, we don’t sell “advertising” in the same way print publications do. But, we can select advertisers that are relevant to the valuable information we provide! Really, I cannot stress this enough. Good, informationpacked copy that is supported by like advertisers is what it takes to be an online publishing success. So, write your website copy with your target audience in mind – and select your advertisers the same way. Have no fear! If you are not comfortable crafting your own website “copy,” you can rely on professional freelance copywriters that are accessible online and available for nominal fees. (I’ll show you where to go, how to screen affordable copywriters, and even how to work with them successfully a bit later.) All of this goes back to choosing a topic you already know about – at least feel comfortable with. You should be excited about learning more about it – you will spend a fair amount of time on this subject, so look for one that sparks your curiosity. And, once again, fear not! © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I am going to actually walk you through the process of choosing topics shortly. But, before we do that, I want to provide you with a little more know-how and a heads-up on what’s around the turnpike for us all. As we progress and work on choosing a topic for you, I urge you to think unique. Think of the uncommon that is still common enough to draw attention and solicit strong sales. Now, that’s the name of the game! So, don’t be intimidated if you feel that you couldn’t possibly know enough about your chosen topic. I mean, how long will your site be on the net – one year, two years, five years, maybe 20 years? The point is that you should take your time when choosing your topic. You will work on it for a long time – and it needs to interest you or it won’t interest others. In truth, you should plan to become an expert (or hire one – which I show you how to do shortly) for the topic you choose – so choose well! The good news here is that with a little time and research, you can easily find topics that interest you and others (which translates into revenue, right?). So, if you’re already an expert in a certain field or perhaps an avid hobbyist in one area or another, or maybe a sports enthusiast – you may want to start here! Fear not! I will show you how to broaden your knowledge on any topic you could think of in Step-5, Add KeywordFocused Content.

The 6 most important factors in choosing a topic (in order of priority) 1. Am I interested in topic? This is numero uno for a reason. It is the most important factor to consider when whittling down your list of possible topics. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Even if you outsource much of the writing, you will need to keep abreast of everything related to your topic. Being interested in it just makes sense – dollars and cents, really! 2. Are there any advertisers in the topic I’m considering? This should be self-evident. There is no point in having a beautiful site on the topic of Eskimo Art, let’s say, if there are no advertisers to help you make it profitable. You will need at least a few different products or services in order to offer your visitor some comparative choices. Soon I will show you where to find thousands of advertisers to choose from. 3. Can I build a decent “keyword list” about this topic? In the next training module, Step-3, you will learn about the strategic importance of “keywords”. Keywords are the exact phrases that people type into search engines. Amazingly, you will be able to get an exact count of EVERY SINGLE KEYWORD PHRASE entered into the major search engines for the previous 60 days. You should consider the DEMAND for these keywords (your potential topics) and keywords that may be related to your potential topics before making any decisions. After all, there’s no sense in having a great site on “men’s bow ties”, – even if there ARE several good affiliate programs available, – if only 6 people searched that subject in the previous month. Remember what I stressed earlier: A little time and research will go a long way here and will save you both time and money in the long run. 4. How good is their ‘creative’? The word ‘creative’ is an advertising industry term that refers to a websites’ ability to properly communicate to, or persuade, its target audience. As a visitor to the merchants’ site – are you impressed? Would YOU buy anything yourself? If not, why not? The thing to remember is: conversion rate, which is simply the percentage of total visitors ‘converted’ into paying customers. As you may suspect, it makes no sense to feature an advertiser whose site is so confusing © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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that people don’t buy. As you gain experience at this you’ll develop a ‘feel’ for which advertisers will convert well. In other words, which advertisers have good ‘creative’? 5. How generous is their program? Depending on the topic, there will be a wide variety of commission options. Some advertisers pay a percentage of the sale and some a flat fee, while other advertisers pay a generous fee for each visitor. Some have a commission for inquiries or registrations, while others cut you a check for only approved transactions. Obviously, you will need to consider this when determining your topic. For now, no worries! I’ll offer some guidelines for all of this in Step-7. 6. Is it a subject I’m familiar with? Of course, it would be nice to write about topics you’re familiar with, as I stressed in Step-1. However, I realize this may not be possible, although it is my first choice. No, it’s not ABSOLUTELY necessary because your focus will be on researching the Net for information related to your industry and distilling the vast amounts of knowledge found there into well-written words for each page of your site. I like to think of it as gobbling up information, digesting it and regurgitating it for the general public. Anyway, the point is that you can become an expert on a topic if you are not one now. In fact, in Step-5, you will be taught exactly how to research and write your content using the Internet. I will also show you how to use eLance, a freelance website that boasts talented writers that will work for nominal fees, many with experience in this specific area. We’ll go into more about eLance later. For now, if you do decide to craft your own copy, you will quickly find that it is no more difficult than a grade 9 high school composition assignment. So, forget about your fear of NOT being a writer. I taught dozens of people this process. Like you, they may have initially been absolutely petrified at the thought of publishing an article on the Net. The good news: they all delight in


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writing and publishing their own articles now and you can too. So, relax. You CAN do it.

Baby step #1 It’s time for a treasure hunt If you’re serious about succeeding in this field, and you can, you have to spend some time finding topic ideas that pique your interest and the interest of visitors to your site. Now, this is not a tough process, so do not feel intimidated or overwhelmed – instead, we’re going to have some fun with this. While there is no equation, no exact science formulation for figuring this out, I can tell you that finding the right topic pays off and by investing a small amount of time on this now, you are sure to start off on the right path and, better yet, stay there! Contrary to popular belief, this will be painless. In fact, it will be easy and fun and hugely beneficial. Start NOW by printing a few copies of the BIG List in the Appendix of this manual. Next, simply walking into your kitchen with BIG List in hand. Take a seat. Now, write down what you see. The goal when you have completed this short, fun process filling out your own BIG List: To have 100 good topic ideas to choose from! Let’s get started! For instance, when I walk in my kitchen, I see a coffee maker, juicer, microwave, bar stools, kitchen table and chairs, a set of knives in a wooden block (that Arlene paid $600 for, I might add), oven, refrigerator, CD radio player, kitchen cabinets, mini blinds, vinyl laminate flooring, accessories and, of course, the proverbial kitchen sink. And, if I open the kitchen cabinets, I see much more – stainless steel cookware, dishes, glassware, bake ware, recycle bin, toaster oven, blender, etc. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Now, you do the same and make notes on everything you see. What you are doing here is making a list of potential topics for your websites – any one of these could potentially be a topic for your site, as you’ll see when you explore Step-5. Within your list of topics, you are going to find your ideas for your very own online specialty boutique. No more shopping mall mentality. We’re going high-end here – a truly unique site that appeals to you and your visitors and will generate revenue. Now, make sure you follow-through right now with this important step. Do not skip ahead without walking through your home, looking in your yard, even your garden shed. After all, if you have spent money on it, others will, too. As you wrap-up in the kitchen, let’s take a peek in your family room. In my family room, I see lamps, an entertainment center, a chesterfield, leather arm chairs, silk plants, a throw rug, coffee table, ottoman, television, DVD player, gas fireplace, a silk flower arrangement, candles, window coverings, TV trays and so on. Admittedly, Arlene just performed a real “Debbie Travis makeover” on our home. It looks great and has given me lots of new ideas for topics. And, when she added the new paint – giving everything a fresh new look – it occurred to me that this in itself is a trend and one that could easily be tapped into. Do you see where I am going with this? Now, take your hunt into your bedrooms and bathrooms. Keep in mind what made you purchase certain items, and consider each item’s (aka potential topic) popularity (aka earning potential). This may very well be your target audience!


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Back to our lists – In our family game room, I quickly spot our pool table and related items, a dartboard, card table and stereo. In our bedrooms, I see bed frames, mattresses, nightstands, lamps, feather pillows, linens, etc. In the bathrooms, I find shower curtains, bathmats, shower organizers, the usual toiletries, a trashcan and bathroom fixtures – toilet tissue holder, towel rack, etc. Now, let’s take our treasure hunt outdoors. Once outside in my yard, I see a birdbath, wooden bench, garden shed, patio furniture (table, chairs and umbrella), little garden gnomes, a BBQ, plants, trees and shrubs, concrete driveway, cedar deck and a 6’ privacy fence. Include outdoor items on your list now, too. Next, let’s head back inside and take a look around your closet(s). In mine, I find a vacuum cleaner, luggage, closet organizers, clothing, shoes, accessories such as ties and belts, etc. Don’t forget your garage. In mine, I see jack stands, a hydraulic jack, and a lawn mower, weed eater, rakes and shovel, and of course, my Shelby Cobra! ☺ When I look at the outside of the house itself I see doors and windows, cedar shakes, stucco, gutters, and so on. The idea here: become very, very product focused! And stay there. Now, once back in your office or place of work, do the same thing. Look at everything with an eagle’s eye. For instance, you’re sure to find a photocopier, fax machine, desks and chairs. What else do you see? Add these to your BIG List. And, if you work in a particular industry, focus some efforts on this. If you are a carpenter (as I am by trade), your “office” equipment undoubtedly includes a table saw, a circular saw, drill, hammers and the like. Don’t forget to add these to your BIG List. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Admittedly, I am not a mall-goer. My wife, Arlene, on the other hand, loves to shop. If you can relate to this, head to the mall. Look around for topic ideas and make sure to have your BIG List tucked under your arm or in your pocket because you are going to be adding lots of ideas on this trip. Take notes on what exactly piques your interest and the interest of others shopping in the mall. Another great area to explore when topic treasure hunting is hobbies. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? What do members of your family do and how about your friends? How do they spend their leisure time? Along this line of thought, my son Justin plays the saxophone (or used to) and my daughter Shelby plays the guitar. Why not a site around either one of those topics? Maybe a good topic to explore on your site is drums or even another musical instrument. The truth is that you are only as limited as your imagination. Thinking further about my children, Adam, my oldest son, loves model trains and sailing ships. Now, there’s another topic idea. And, I love muscle cars. You see, there are lots and lots of topics that will be just right for you and a defined target audience – all it takes is a little treasure hunting! And, to gather all the nuggets you need for financial success, you need a BIG List of possible topics.

_______________________________ CAUTION:

Do NOT move forward until you have completed your BIG List. This is crucial and the information in your BIG List will allow you to progress! So, if you have not completed your BIG List, do so NOW!

_______________________________


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Take a peek into your topics There are many sources of advertisers. In fact, at the back of this manual, in the Recommended Resources Appendix, I provide you with links to some of the very best. However, for the sake of simplicity, we will confine our current research to locating potential advertisers for your site by doing a Google Search, – for ‘affiliate’ and ‘sponsored link’ advertising programs. I’ll begin with Part 1: An overview of ‘affiliate’ programs. Next, we’ll move onto to Part 2: An overview of sponsored link programs. Here, I’ll give you an overview of how these two types of advertising programs work. This will be followed by some tried and true steps that you can follow to help you in the final selection of your topic. Please do not skip these easy-to-do, BUT ESSENTIAL processes described below. The time you spend doing them will greatly expand your understanding of affiliate marketing and provide a solid base for the next 6-steps. And have your printer, three-hole punch and binder with tabs ready (or, at the very least your printer and a stapler). You’ll have work to do. So I’d give myself a full evening or afternoon to complete this important research, and strongly recommend you do, too! So grab a cup of coffee and a snack and settle in. We’re going to have some fun!


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PPaarrtt 1 n oovveerrvviieew 1– –A An w ooff ‘‘aaffffiilliiaattee’’ p prroog grraam mss Let’s begin with affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are a simple business relationship between a site owner (the “publisher”) and “advertisers.” In this relationship, the advertisers agree to pay the publishers a commission for referring customers to them. Advertisers manage their affiliate program independently by installing tracking software on their in-house server, or by joining a third-party commission network (I.e. CJ.com, LinkShare, ShareaSale, etc.) who provides third-party tracking and infrastructure of the referrals through specialized tracking software that resides on their own server. I’ll cover this in more detail in Step #7 – Join Some Good Affiliate Programs; however, at this time, I am going to take this opportunity to walk you through the preliminary research on a few of the topics you have written down. We will take this step-by-step, so let’s get started.

Baby step #2: Grab your BIG List Think of this step as moving past the treasure hunt to actual mining – you will be mining for very valuable nuggets of information – nuggets that will provide you with a strong ROI (Return on Investment), with the only investment being a bit of time and effort here. To start your mining, I will show you how to do a Google search for the topic ideas on your list, first in print and then by actually doing a live demo. You will be mining for strong affiliate programs and for topics that are uniquely suited for you and ones that do not have lots and lots of competition.


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Step #2 - Finding the Right Topic For You! - Part 1 – An overview of ‘affiliate’ programs

First and foremost, congratulations for putting together your BIG List! Now, looking at your BIG list, you’re sure to see a dozen or so topic ideas that seem more intriguing than the rest. Let’s highlight these by underlining them now. Next, look at the BIG list once again and find 10-15 more topic ideas that you think are almost as intriguing as those you just underlined. You should now have about 25 topic ideas to work with. Keep your BIG list (with some topics underlined) in hand and let’s keep moving forward.

Baby step #3: Find some advertisers Go to Google. www.google.com As mentioned earlier, there are thousands of advertisers to choose from, – for now, we’ll use Google to find them. To begin, I would suggest adding the words affiliate program to the first highlighted topic on your BIG List. For example, if the topic is ‘coffee maker’, then you would simply type the words coffee maker affiliate program into Google and hit ‘enter’ to do a search.


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What you see next is a list of sites that sell coffee makers and that have an affiliate program.


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Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of this process.

Baby step #4: Get familiar with the many topics This is important. Spend some time searching as many topics as you can, by searching topics on your BIG list, and by searching any topics that come to mind, – such as ‘bar stools’, ‘hydraulic car lifts’, ‘computer desks’ or ‘horse saddles’. I highly recommend that you do not join any affiliate programs just yet, – it’s a little premature. As you search your many topics, you will become familiar with how each advertiser presents information to you as one of their potential publishers. Before I take you through the steps, it’s important to understand that your essentially you’re looking for five things from your advertisers: 1. Commission Rates – Keep in mind as you do your research on advertisers that it is normal for commission rates paid by these advertisers to vary greatly – even within the same topic. Because of this, it really “pays” to do your preliminary research. Take a minute to consider this: It is not uncommon to see one advertising pay 6% of the retail sale and another 11% for the very same or similar product; thus, the importance of closely examining the advertisers. When doing so, simply ask yourself if you feel as though the commission rates are fair. And, make the comparisons. How does one advertiser’s commission rate compare to others in the same topic? 2. Average Sale – Another very important factor to consider when evaluating potential advertisers is the average sale. While this may seem obvious, it is worth pointing out that if the average sale is $20 and your commission rate is 10%, you earn $2 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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commission for each sale. On the other hand, if the average sale were $250, that same 10% commission would pay you $25 for each sale referred. Big difference, right? 3. Cookie Duration – Each time you send a visitor to your merchant, a “cookie” is set to track the transaction. This allows you to get credit for the sale providing it is made within a set time frame. The duration of the cookie (also know as ‘Return Days’) is set by the merchant (“advertiser”) and typically varies from zero to ninety days. The longer the duration of the cookie or the Return Days, the better for you, for the commission you receive for referrals applies to this number of days. So, if a referral from you does not make an initial purchase, but revisits the advertiser’s site in 30 Return Days, you receive commission if the Cookie Duration is 30 days or longer. You can expect Cookie Duration to be 30, 60 or 90 days, with some even stretching further. 4. Creative – The word ‘creative’ is an advertising industry term that refers to a websites’ ability to properly communicate to or persuade its target audience. As a visitor to the merchants’ site – are you impressed? Would YOU buy anything yourself? If not, why not? Remember: The goal here is to convert visitors into paying customers. The rate at which you do this is called the conversion rate. Which means (the percentage of total visitors ‘converted’ into customers). So, with this as your goal, it makes no sense to feature an advertiser whose site is so confusing that people don’t buy. As you gain experience at this you’ll develop a ‘feel’ for which advertisers will convert well or, in other words, which advertisers have good ‘creative.’ 5. Join Page – Is the advertisers affiliate join page user friendly? Or, does it employ a lot of lawyer jargon and demonstrate an attitude of restriction in their policy requirements? Is it well constructed or does it look like it is haphazardly thrown together? Is the contact information for the affiliate manager readily available? Do they seem to appreciate their © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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affiliates? These are all areas to consider when looking to add an advertiser to your website. What is conveyed on this page of an advertiser’s site is somewhat indicative of what to expect from them in a working relationship. Now, considering the points above, search as many topics as you can, – in order to get familiar with the staggering amount of companies offering affiliate revenue to budding Internet publishers like yourself. Just browse. Get ideas. See what’s possible.

Baby step #5: Compile data on possible topics Once you are comfortable with the fact that you have MORE than enough choices as topics for a profitable website, then you will need to gather printed information on at least a dozen different topics. In other words, you will need to narrow it down a bit, from the “total” number of topics available from your initial 25 to about a dozen. You’re in research mode here. In later steps you will narrow it down even further, but this initial research could be very helpful after you’ve built your first site and want to do another. As you come across topics that you feel you may want to pursue, you should gather data according to the process I’m about to describe: Here is the procedure to follow on your initial dozen or so topics, as well as future topics: 1. Search a topic from your BIG List. 2. Up comes a complete list of available sites offering affiliate programs.


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3. Scroll down the list. Make a mental note of the total numbers of potential sites offering affiliate programs. 4. Click on each site listed in the search results. 5. Evaluate each site. Is it easy for customers to buy? How about a money back guarantee? Are they a member of the Better Business Bureau? 6. Next, find the sites ‘affiliate program’ page. Evaluate their program. Notice the commissions. At first glance do they seem lucrative? How many return days do they offer? 7. Print a few pages from the site (I.e. home page, affiliate program page, etc.) if you feel they could have potential as an advertiser for you. (either now, or in the future) 8. Place these pages into a file folder. Label it according to topic, – such as ‘desk lamps’. 9. Find at least 3-5 potential merchants for each topic. 10. Keep repeating this process until you have opened up file folders for at least a dozen different topics (I.e. bread makers, coffee tables, rocking chairs, gas BBQs, water coolers, ice hockey skates, dog beds, garden sheds, hot tubs, garage doors, bakers racks, paper shredders, baseball gloves, etc.)

Baby step #6: Review and drill down Hopefully, the above process has excited you about your potential as a publisher of information-rich websites. The only problem now is that, whereas before you had no clue about where to start, NOW you have too MANY options. So, we need to research our list of 12 more fully, so that we can prioritize. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Remember, the goal of THIS training module, Step-2, is to find your three best bets. Here’s how to determine your best three: 1. Prioritize your stack of 12 files. You will be doing research on 3-5 advertisers for each topic. So, in case it gets tedious before you cover all 12, you will want to start with the topics that, – at first glance, – look “most” promising to you, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s an industry you work in. Or, it has regional implications. Or, the commissions look great. Or, you read an article that projected tremendous growth for online sales in THAT particular industry. We are essentially brainstorming here. So, just go with your instincts. 2. Open your first file folder and study each of the 3-5 advertisers. Highlight the commission rate and number of return dates offered. 3. Repeat the process for as many of your 12 potential topics as seems necessary. What you will end up with now are 3-5 potential merchants (“advertisers”) in each of your 12 topic files – prioritized so that you can better determine your best three topics!


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PPaarrtt 2 n oovveerrvviieew 2– –A An w ooff ‘‘ssp poon nssoorreed d lliin nkk’’ p grraam mss prroog You’ve learned some exciting tidbits of information and are already progressing nicely. Great work! Now, in this section, I provide you with a brief overview of the sponsored link programs. This is expanded even more in Step #7 – Join Some Good Affiliate Programs. To help you with this section, I have provided links to some of the best-sponsored link programs in the back of this manual, in the Recommended Resources Appendix. For now, let’s focus our research to locating potential advertisers by evaluating Google’s AdSense program – the largest and most popular program of this type on the Net. As you will see, Google adserving technology has an amazing way of serving up ads that are relevant to the content of each page. So, if you place Google ads on a page about ‘scuba diving vacations’, Google will automatically serve up related ads. You’re undoubtedly asking, “How does this help me?” Listen up, because this is a good one! You see, unlike affiliate programs, which pay a commission for each sale (or lead) generated, a sponsored link program pays a commission on each click generated. And the more related the ad is to the page, the more likely it is to get clicked on, and when the ad gets clicked on YOU get paid. And Google does a great job of serving up related ads. Below is a link to the Google AdSense program, let’s take a minute or two now and take the AdSense tour. As you get familiar with Google AdSense, the benefits of this cuttingedge program will become more obvious. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #2 - Finding the Right Topic For You! - Part 2 – An overview of ‘sponsored link’ programs

Keep in mind as you look around Google AdSense that you can’t join the AdSense program until your site is live. And, I’ll walk you through this process in great detail in Step #7 – Join Some Good Affiliate Programs. For now, use the quick and easy tour to familiarize yourself with Google’s terminology such as ‘auction’, ‘bid for placement,’ etc. Sure, this sound like mumbo-jumbo right now, but Google is setting the pace on the Net right now and it is important that you get comfortable with Google, it’s programs, terminology, etc. For instance, you are about to learn that advertisers actually bid for placement or for positions here. You are also about to learn how this earns you money! That’s right: You earn a percentage of the advertiser’s bid price. Nobody knows the exact percentage, other than Google of course, but we do know that it fluctuates based on some criteria set by Google; however many feel the rate is around 20%. So if the bid rate for the link that it clicked on is $1, and we earn approximately 20%, then we would earn $0.20 for each visitor sent. You really need to understand the basics of how this program works before you move on, so STOP where you are now and click (or visit) the link below. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much clearer this makes this entire process for you! http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/

Baby step #7: Grab your 12 files Next, grab the 12 file folders that include your affiliate program research. Take a quick look now to see what


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types of ‘sponsored link’ advertisers are available to you on each of your 12 potential topics. This is the exciting part and you’re almost there. You’re about to narrow down your choices and start on the exciting path of publishing. For this, another congratulations is certainly in order!

Baby step #8: Head back to Google www.google.com Sticking with our previous coffee makers search, I am going to now show you how to evaluate the number of advertisers and potential commissions available for your topics in Googles’ program.

Baby step #9: Familiarize yourself with Google “Sponsored Links” I’ll walk them through the process shortly. Before this, however, I want you to see for yourself how Google’s


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‘Sponsored Links’ are listed down the right-hand column (see screen shot below). In some cases, they are also displayed across the top of the search results, as well.

The object of this exercise is to determine how many advertisers are bidding for your potential topic. The more advertisers bidding, the higher the bid rate; which we earn a percentage of. All of this translates into more revenue for you! As you look around here, keep in mind that these are the very same ads that you can place on your sites, and that they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Take a minute or two to study this page. I recommend that you print it out. (Note: Don’t click on the ads, because it will unnecessarily cost the advertisers money.) What you see here is natural search results to the left; paid results to the right.


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Baby step #10: Evaluate the bid rates Unfortunately, Google does not share with us the advertiser bid rates here. This would allow us to get a better idea about the advertiser’s earning potential. Oh, well. Maybe some day, right? For now, you can rely on Google competitor, Yahoo! Publisher Network, for this information. Yahoo! Publisher Network offers such a tool called the Overture bid tool and I use it all the time. Of course, the higher the bid rate here the better. And, this Yahoo! Publisher Network tool also allows you another opportunity to determine just how many advertisers are available for your potential topics. Talk about a win-win! And, although the bid prices do vary between these two competitors, we can still get a feel for the earning potential by spending some time here. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth pointing out here again - When choosing a topic for your site, it pays to know how many people are searching for this topic. I’ll show you how to determine this in the Step #3 – Keywords Are The Building Blocks.


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However, before we do that, let’s expand on the Yahoo! Overture bid tool a bit more. This tool has been around for many years and has been offered by Overture, which was recently purchased by Yahoo! The tool is easy to use and can provide you with real eyeopening information about your chosen topics.

Baby step #11: Find Yahoos’ Overture bid tool http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tool s/bidtool/ Ready for a bit of irony. It may be easier for you to find this tool by doing a Google search, using the keyword ‘overture bid tool’. You will be doing an Overture search for each of your 12 potential topics. No, this is not a difficult task, nor is it that time consuming – especially when you consider that this step will help you really hone in on the topics that are best for you – the ones that are sought out and have the most income generating possibilities. Yes, another win-win! To start, simply open up your first file folder and enter your first topic into the search box and then press ‘Search’.


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As you see in the screen shot below, you are now looking at each of the advertisers for the topic you entered. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, pay attention to the advertiser’s bid prices. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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As a general rule, I like to see a minimum bid of at least $0.50. (I.e. Advertiser's Max Bid: $0.50) Take a minute to print this page and put it in the appropriate file. Repeat this for the remaining 11 potential topics.


Baby step #12: Pick your best three Now spend some quality time to thin out your selections. I suggest getting AWAY from the computer for this step. Get ready to shift gears and narrow down your list of 12 potential topics to a robust 3! Let the fun begin. Go ahead and grab your files and your preferred beverage and find a spot where you won’t be disturbed. You may even want head out to your favorite coffee shop. This is going to take a couple hours (but worth every minute of it, I promise!) •

With pen or highlighter, carefully go through each potential advertiser.

•

Make note of their commission structure. Look more closely at their home page.

•

How does it compare to others in the same topic?


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•

Is their affiliate join page user friendly? Or, does it employ a lot of lawyer jargon and demonstrate an attitude of restriction in their policy requirements?

•

Do they seem to appreciate their affiliates?

THAT’S the key as far as I’m concerned. Use your intuition and simply circle the interesting ones. Although you won’t need to decide on your single best topic until Step-4, Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose Your Template, you will want to have chosen at least three primary topics to make your choice from at that point.

Baby step #13: Think boutique – not shopping mall Another stumbling block for my former students was the tendency to think of topics that were too ‘general’, such as ‘Loans’ instead of ‘Car Loans’ or ‘Golf’ instead of ‘Golf Equipment’ or better yet, ‘Golf Balls’. By building sites around very specific topics you attract the RIGHT people to your site, – those most likely to buy. Shopping online is VERY different than traditional shopping because the shopper (and advertiser) are not limited by the constraints of ‘brick n’ mortar’. The consumer can scan the world in seconds looking for a place to buy ‘buttons’, for instance. Whereas in the brick n’ mortar world, they would probably have to first find a ‘store’, – that sold a whole array of different products other than buttons, – otherwise the merchant would be unlikely to make a profit. And, usually these stores are in malls. But, the Internet itself is a mall. In fact, it’s the largest shopping mall on earth.


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And YOU can set up a simple storefront in this mall and sell the specific products that are wanted. If you want to sell a wider selection of products, then by all means, do so. But, instead of cluttering a single website with many products, build several with a few. This online boutique concept serves the consumer very well, – because remember, – you will be building your sites around topics with a proven interest, based on your keyword research, which I show you how to do in Step-3, Keywords Are The Building Blocks. In reflecting on your OWN surfing experiences, don’t you derive greater satisfaction when landing on a site that ‘nails it’ as far as your search was concerned? And, conversely, isn’t it a pain to open a site that is completely off-topic or confusing? In the next step, you will learn about the amazing role of “keywords” and how they spell out for you EXACTLY what consumers want, so that you, – the clever Internet marketer that you are, – can build a site around their interest and find advertisers who will deliver relevant products and services TO them.

Baby step #14: Complete the checklist for Step #2 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #3, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – It’s time for a treasure hunt Baby step #2 – Grab your BIG List Baby step #3 – Find some advertisers Baby step #4 – Get familiar with the many topics Baby step #5 – Compile data on possible topics © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #6 – Review and drill down Baby step #7 – Grab your 12 files Baby step #8 – Head back to Google Baby step #9 – Familiarize yourself with Google “Sponsored Links” Baby step #10 – Evaluate the bid rates Baby step #11 – Find Yahoos’ Overture bid tool Baby step #12 – Pick your best three Baby step #13 – Think boutique – not shopping mall Baby step #14 – Complete this checklist

Once you have chosen … …at least three possible topics that offer from 3-5 advertisers that have good affiliate programs… …You are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 3 #3 K Keeyyw woorrd dss A hee B uiilld Arree tth diin ng gB Bu Blloocckkss Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …you will have a keyword list of approximately 50300 words (or more) for each of the three topics you have selected in the previous step.

Know thy keywords Socrates apparently recommended that his students cultivate self-knowledge as a way to enlightenment. He said to them often, “Know thyself”. Good advice, I’d say. And, my advice to anyone contemplating a commercial website is to “know thy keywords”. It is critically important that you determine, in advance, what words and phrases – keywords – are being searched on the Internet before doing ANYTHING regarding your website. And, that includes naming it. This is because you will gain an AWESOME strategic advantage when your domain name contains the most popular keywords for your industry, – especially since the advent of link popularity as a MAJOR search engine © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #3 - Keywords Are the Building Blocks

ranking technique. (We cover link popularity in Step-8, How To Boost Your Rankings With Link Popularity) It wasn’t by accident that my domain name for my initial satellite TV site included the keyword: “free-satellite-TV”. By using a low-cost service on the Internet, called Wordtracker, I had determined in advance that “free satellite TV” was a very popular keyword. We’ll be doing some things with Wordtracker in just a few minutes.

But, first – a search engine primer Some of you may be familiar with the way that search engines work. Others may have never given it much thought. So, let me review some basics. In the world today, there are 3 major search engines. It’s been estimated that 92% of all search engine traffic is handled by the Big-3 below: 1. Google 2. Yahoo 3. MSN Search engines are the most popular method used by web surfers to locate particular websites – accounting for well over half of all possible ways that visitors learn about the existence of any specific site. And, search engine use continues to grow. Nearly all of my success has come from getting my sites ranked highly in these search engines, – especially Google – which is the biggest and most accurate of them all. You see, when someone types in the keyword “free satellite TV” at Google, for instance, a lightening fast


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search of its own database occurs, yielding a top-10 page that surfers view first. Along the top will be the total number of web pages (not websites) that contained the phrase “free satellite TV” somewhere within it, – in the title, description or text. The goal of the search engine is to provide the visitor with a compilation of sites bearing some relevancy to the keyword or phrase typed in by the surfer. The first page (top 10 listings) offers the most popular sites, ranked in order of relevancy and popularity from top to bottom.

All other pages will also contain lists of 10 sites, each with decreasing relevancy according to that particular search engines’ criteria. And you don’t want to be buried on page 20 if getting traffic is important to you. I’m sure it’s obvious to you that you’ll get more traffic if you get ranked in the top one or two pages. You want your site ranked as highly as possible for the most appropriate keywords in your industry.


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Thankfully, much of your competition will fail to get noticed at the search engines because no prior thought went into determining which phrases were important as far as search engine rankings were concerned. And because of this oversight, their pages get indexed poorly. You, however, won’t make that costly mistake.

Spiders at work When I first started surfing the Net I was perplexed by how these search engines could scan the entire Internet and locate so many sites in seconds. My confusion was cleared up when I learned about the role of “spiders”. Spiders are software programs that scurry across the World Wide Web of interconnected computers – hence the name spiders – at regular intervals looking for page addresses to retrieve, index and store in their databases. They feed on this data, which is why we call keywords ‘spider food’. Of course, as a Webmaster, you will first need to submit your site address, – URL, – which we cover in Step-7, Affiliate programs + AdSense = Profits. Once submitted, the spiders will index your site and rank it for relevancy so that the search engines’ visitors get the best possible selection. And, the spiders return at regular intervals. So, any changes you’ve made between visits, – such as adding more pages or rewriting content, – can affect your rankings, either positively or negatively. For this reason alone, I rarely touch a page that has scored highly.


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Spiders with a purpose The mission of these spiders is simple. They must determine what each page in their database is about. Not unlike humans, – they read to find out. But, unlike humans – who can think – they substitute thinking with some quick math and calculate the main topic of each page. This explains why, on occasion, a search returns some very odd selections.

Please feed the spiders These tiny beasts devour the words of your entire page. In a nano-second, each page of your site has a “score” and is placed in the appropriate index ACCORDING to that score. You score high or low, which is based, in part, on the strategic placement of spider food – or by the strategic placement of keywords. If it finds the words sugar all over the page, instead of, let’s say, university text books, then it concludes, “aha, THIS is a site about sugar”. Then, it checks it’s database for ALL pages about ‘sugar’ and adjusts it’s rankings accordingly. Using a mathematical calculation called an algorithm, these spiders determine whether THIS page about sugar is MORE relevant than THAT page about sugar. And, it’s not as simple as putting your keyword into every sentence. You need to be careful. Use too many keywords and you’re penalized with a low ranking. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Use not enough and you’re ALSO penalized. Have too many DIFFERENT words and the spider gets confused – and that’s a BAD thing, too. In Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, I’ll offer some delightful recipes for spider food that are guaranteed to please the palate of even the most discriminating spider! Are you ready for some baby steps?

Baby step #1: Visit Wordtracker Go to www.wordtracker.com and click “Learn more”.


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Baby step #2: Read more about Wordtracker below

We compile a database of terms that people search for. You enter some keywords, and we tell you how often people search for them, and also tell you how many competing sites use those keywords.

Wordtracker helps you find all keyword combinations that bear any relation to your business or service - many of which you might never have considered. You'll find out how popular these keywords really are. Then for each major search engine, we'll show you the chances of making the top 10.

At this point you can disregard Wordtracker’s other services. Your MAIN focus is the “keyword phrases” related to the three industries you’ve chosen.

Baby step #3: Take the Wordtracker Tour Take a few minutes now to catch your breath, to relax, and to get ready to learn some really interesting (and profitable) information! It’s time to take the 6-step Wordtracker tour. I will provide you with an informative video tutorial to help with this, but before you review my tutorial, take some time to work through the tour. Read every word. Soon, we will go through this together to make sure you understand it and get it right. For now, though, you simply must absorb the important information provided. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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The Wordtracker Tour steps include: Step 1 - What can Wordtracker do for my website? Step 2 - Use Wordtracker to brainstorm Step 3 - Discover what people are actually searching for Step 4 - Cherry pick keywords Step 5 - Manage your keywords Step 6 - Take the free trial http://www.wordtracker.com/tour.html

Baby step #4: Take a 1-day subscription Remember our goal: build “keyword lists” for each of the three topics or industries you are considering. It is vitally important that you don’t meander on this site – or any of the others that you work on throughout this tutorial – because of the risk of acquiring conflicting information and thereby losing focus. So, with the three chosen topic files you have prepared in Step-2 handy, – click on Wordtracker’s Order/Pricing link.


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The best six bucks you’ll ever spend. In order to complete your keyword lists you will need a 1day subscription for only $6.12 US (this is a U.K. company converting pounds into dollars, hence the unusual price) Simply choose the 1-Day option as shown below.


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http://www.wordtracker.com/order.html

Baby step #5: Click-thru to #1. Keyword Universe As mentioned earlier, all the rest is irrelevant at this point for our immediate purposes. However, once your site is built, you may want to familiarize yourself with Wordtracker’s other services or subscribe for a longer period of time to take advantage of other services and benefits.


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Baby step #6: Follow their 4-step process In Wordtracker’s Step-1 below, you simply enter the name of the industry or topic you would like to research.


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This will provide hundreds of possible phrases – although many of them will have no bearing on your industry. Not to worry, though. From this long list in the LEFT window you will select the words and phrases that DO make sense, – by clicking on the chosen word or phrase. This action will automatically generate ANOTHER list in the RIGHT window (as shown in the screenshot that follows). Those words that appear in the RIGHT window are more specific and become the basis of your eventual keyword list. Now, let’s take a step back for just a minute. Before proceeding further with your search, go ahead and select ‘Compressed’ database that is shown in the bottom left hand column of the image above. In the “wine racks” example that follows, you will see the process more clearly. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Here’s the procedure: 1. In the left window click any words or phrases one at a time that make sense for your industry, as I have done above for the phrase ‘wine racks’. 2. This opens a window on the right. 3. In the right window you will see the precise phrases – as well as their exact count – compiled from a search, by Wordtracker, of many of the largest search engines in the prior month. These are the keywords that make the difference to your rankings when strategically placed throughout your site – even if they are misspelled. a. Note the Keyword b. Note the Count and Predicted counts 4. Whenever you click on any phrase in this right window, THAT word gets added to your shopping cart, while a counter tallies them up.


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Simply review this list, – selecting words and phrases as you go, that, at first glance, seem relevant to the theme of your potential website. Each selection will be added to your shopping cart and increase your total cost accordingly. There is no cost per word, so take as many as you want. You can review and delete irrelevant choices later. NOTE: In fact, you may HAVE to avoid using some of your very best keywords due to their massive popularity. So it’s better to take too many at this point, than not enough. In Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, you will be shown how-to do a “backwards link check” at Google before deciding whether to build a keyword-Focused page around any particular keyword. The procedure you will learn, – which is largely unknown, – will allow you to predict with great accuracy exactly what it will take, in terms of linkpopularity, to get your page ranked ahead of those who currently occupy the 1st page at Google for any keyword on your list. But, for now, – just build your list, – which becomes the raw material from which you will ultimately organize your content. Keep going back and forth between left and right windows – selecting one word or phrase at a time from the left window, – then choosing from the right column, which adds them to your cart in preparation for Step-3 (below) of the Wordtracker process.


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In Wordtracker’, Step-3 above, your chosen keyword list has now been organized numerically from top to bottom according to each keywords’ popularity at the search engines. Note the count of 1252 for the keyword: wine racks. This means that this particular word has appeared 1252 times in the Wordtracker database over a 100 day period. The keyword ‘wine rack’ (not plural, as it was in the first keyword) just below it, appeared 858 times. This is GREAT information.

How many words? You’re looking for a list of between 50-300 or so keywords. Each keyword offers you the opportunity to optimize a page on your site primarily about THAT particular keyword.


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So if you build a list of 50 keywords, – and use each one as a primary keyword for a single page on your site, – then you will have a 50 page website. If you use 300 words, then you will have a 300 page website. I will go into more detail on how to use these keywords to your best advantage in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content. For now, just become familiar with the Wordtracker service, by building separate lists of keywords for each of the three industries you’ve researched. As you complete each list, simply email them to yourself from Wordtracker. Then print them for your paper files. Important Note: Before starting your second list in Wordtracker, hit “clear all” button to start a fresh list. If you don’t clear the previous list, the new list will combine with your previous list creating one big mess.

Choose keywords with at least 10 searches Many words will not rate as a keyword because they were not popular enough at the search engines. For me, the threshold is 10. I need to see at least 10 searches for any particular keyword before investing the time to optimize a page of content about it. But, do not neglect counts above that threshold. Many webmasters ignore words with counts of a hundred or so, thinking they are not worth the effort. I have a different view. For me, it makes perfectly good sense to get a high ranking for a relatively obscure keyword, – that my © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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competition may be ignoring, – because although the visitors will be few in number, they are HIGHLY targeted, which means they are more likely to click-thru to a merchant.


Be specific Remember, your site is a specialty boutique, – not a mall or a department store, – so try to be as specific as possible in your choices of keywords. Internet surfers do not look for malls. They look for information, – specific information. You want these surfers to land on pages within your site, – so that, hopefully, they will click on one of your featured merchants which offer products and services… …related to their search. The more specific you get, the more useful you become to the visitor, – plus, you will have less competition from other websites because most try to be all-things-to-allpeople, – like a typical mall. For example, you may have initially thought that a site about baby items was a good idea, – only to find that baby cribs seems to offer a better niche (i.e. – wooden baby cribs, new baby cribs, baby crib safety, and so on).


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Run that by me one more time This really IS a simple process, once you get the hang of it. Let’s review Wordtracker’s 4-step process: 1.

In Step-1, enter a search word that best describes your chosen industry, such as “wine racks”.

2.

Peruse the list that appears in the left window and select those, which seem appropriate. a. This opens a window on the right with the exact count and precise phrases surfed at the search engines in the prior month. b. Choose the best ones by clicking on them once. You will see the numerical total in shopping cart counter increase after each click.

Before adding to your shopping cart, ask yourself: “Would my site make sense to someone surfing THIS phrase?” And, “Does it meet my count total criteria?” 3.

Then go back to the left column and select another word. Keep doing this – going back and forth – until you’ve built up a list of 50-300 different keywords. Choose keywords with at least 10 searches.

4.

Proceed to Step-3 and give your list a final review, before deleting any keywords that might not seem appropriate upon further consideration.

Baby step #7: Check for competing web pages Note that I say “web pages” here and not “websites.” That is because every page on your new site (which is built © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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around a single keyword) competes with other pages on the Net for the top spot. In fact, it’s a common misunderstanding that search engines rank websites; when, in actual fact, they rank each page on a site individually. This said, let’s get in the right frame of mind here. It’s time to start ‘thinking pages, NOT sites’. Now, as you follow through Wordtracker’s step #4, you will check for the number of pages on the Net that will be competing with your page for a particular keyword on your keyword list. Rest assured, these few steps are going to put you ahead of the game! You see, most website owners never go to this extreme (mainly because they don’t know how). They fail (and you will not) to check the competition and never realize that this small amount of work would give them the strong competitive advantage they need to achieve top placement. You are not going to make this same mistake. Instead, let’s keep moving forward on the path to achieving YOUR online success. Here’s the procedure: 1. Select the Google check box 2. Set the KEI Analysis to ‘Yes’ 3. Set the Quotes to ‘No’ 4. Click ‘Proceed’ to generate the list


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I know this may look a bit confusing. Again, worry not. For now, let’s just spend some time collecting the keywords and I will provide you with a brief overview of what to look for here so that it all becomes crystal clear! What you are looking for in this report follows (with short, easy-to-understand definitions). If you feel you need additional definitions or further clarification as you review the report, simply click on the (?) link on the Wordtracker page. As you progress, keep these important words and definitions in mind: 1. KEI (Key Effectiveness Index) Analysis – The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition they have. Which means you have a better chance of getting to the top. A little background on this: Sumantra Roy, a respected Search Engine Positioning specialist from http://www.1stSearchRanking.com allowed Wordtracker to incorporate his KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) into the program. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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The KEI compares the Count result (number of times a keyword has appeared in our data) with the number of competing web pages to pinpoint exactly which keywords are most effective for your campaign. In a nutshell: Look for the keywords near the top. The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition they have. Which means you have a better chance of getting to the top. 2. Count – Number of times search phrase appeared in the Wordtracker database in the past 100 days. 3. 24 Hours – This is the predicted daily traffic for each keyword in this search engine only. So, if you see the number 33 in the 24Hr column, this tells you that we estimate this particular keyword to be queried 33 times today in this engine. 4. Competing – Number of pages listed in Google with the exact keyword phrase. The lower the number in the competing column shown below, the easier you will find it to reach the top using this keyword. Note: The graphic below will undoubtedly provide the clarity you need here to feel comfortable with this new information.


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You’re getting the hang of it now! Once you have run your report, scroll to the bottom of the list and either Export, Email or View the results. Next, print the list and add to the appropriate file folder. I’ll give you instructions and guidelines for evaluating your keyword report in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content.

While on this site, let’s go ahead and work through these same easy steps for your other two topics. I know that this is all new to you and provide you with a video tutorial now so you can walk through these steps with great ease. IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Before creating another list for a separate topic, – remember, you need 3 lists, – you © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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must hit the Clear all link in the shopping cart window, otherwise these new words get mixed in with the others.

You simply CANNOT get this wrong so do not worry! Please don’t fret about this if it’s your first exposure to keywords. Consider this session as practice. I realize it may seem daunting, intimidating or even be a bit frustrating. Trust me, it will not be for long. Just like I did, you definitely WILL get the hang of it as you repeat the process for each of the three topics you’ve chosen. The purpose of these keyword lists will become more apparent in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, when I instruct you on how-to organize your keywords into separate groups before starting to write content. But, please don’t skip this exercise if you think it’ll be easier to make your lists later. The practice you will get in this module will be VERY valuable later, when going through the process of refining and organizing your lists.

Baby step #8: Complete the checklist for step 3 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #4, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – Visit Wordtracker Baby step #2 – Read more about Wordtracker © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #3 – Take the Wordtracker Tour Baby step #4 – Take a 1-day subscription Baby step #5 – Click through to #1 keyword universe Baby step #6 – Follow their 4-step process Baby step #7 – Check for competing web pages Baby step #8 – Complete the checklist for Step #3

Once you have… …a printed keyword list of approximately 50-300 words for each of the three industries you’ve selected… …you are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 4 #4 LLaad diieess aan nd dG nttlleem meen n– Geen hoooossee Y –C Ch urr Yoou T Teem mp pllaattee Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …you will have your website under construction!

Mr. Web speaks the language of HTML Before beginning the process of choosing a pre-designed template and website publisher, – from a third party company called the Fast Creative Inc., – I would like to cover some Internet basics. Especially for those adventurous souls who purchased this manual with a burning desire to succeed financially, – but, who had never really given much thought to the Internet, – and who might even have an aversion to things technical. The first thing you need to know, – with absolute certainty, – is that no one has all the answers. And that would include me as well. That’s because this vast World Wide Web (www.) of interconnected computers is a still a-work-in-progress. And we, its users, are much like the proverbial blind men in the ancient parable about five blind guys who were © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #4 - Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose Your Template

asked to describe the elephant they could only imagine from their individual grasp of different parts of this enormous beast. Not surprisingly, they all had conflicting opinions. And, – likewise with the Internet, – because here too, no one can really see the big picture, – especially since it’s still evolving. But, all YOU really need to know is how it relates to your purpose of publishing information on the Net and profiting with affiliate and sponsored link programs. These days, publishing to the Net is easy because advanced website publishing software will automatically convert your document into HTML, a programming code that allows information to be shared on the Net. This is a fairly recent development. Formerly, programmers were needed to convert every document into HTML code. This was both expensive and time consuming. The screen shot below depicts an example of the HTML that is embedded into every page you view on the net. The purpose of your browser is to ‘translate’ this code.

Below is the same page as above, after it has been instantly translated into words and graphics.


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Much easier on the eyes, don’t you think?

Viewing this code on any website is easy To view the Source code (HTML) on any site, just use the View command in your browser as shown below, then click “source”.

Servers hold the data If you write something that you want to be made available on the Net, it not only needs to be converted to HTML, but it must reside on a web hosting companies’ ‘server’. These servers act like hubs, – that connect all other servers on the Net, – transforming them into one HUGE


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computer offering accessibility to anyone with a Net connection. The hosting companies charge a small monthly fee to host your data (website) on their server, so that anyone who knows your Web address (URL), or finds your link in a search engine, can access your site. Although the surfer only knows your Web address, (i.e. www.mysite.com), your site actually resides at the hosting companies’ IP address, – which is a long number, such as 122.8.62.44, – which includes a few digits that are unique only to your particular site, – much like an apartment building with a series of door numbers. The next site that you view, although in London, England, may actually reside on a server located in Miami, Florida.

Publishing to the Net with online website publishing software is a cinch Now, many students who relied on the 2002 and 2005 versions of my Affiliate Handbook followed my recommendation to use FrontPage, Microsoft’s popular website publishing software. And, while many of my students report that they continue to use FrontPage with great success, as do I, I am also moving towards using Internet-based website publishing software and services. You see, because FrontPage resides on the hard drive of my computer, I need to have my laptop with me if I want to make changes to any of my sites. An Internet-based service, on the other hand, is hosted on an online server, owned by the service provider, – and as a result, I can access the service from any Internetconnected computer in the world simply by entering my username and password.


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And, using online website publishing software, I can have full access to my sites, – all from anywhere, – and at any time, – even if I don’t have my laptop with me. It’s not a new idea either. Back in the 2002, when I launched the original version of this manual, “online” site builders were available; however they lacked many of the features necessary to gain high rankings in the search engines. Since then, great advances in online site publishing technology have been made (along with almost everything else for that matter), so much so I am now recommending that you use an online website publishing service to develop and manage your new site. And it’ll make the whole process much easier for you! In fact, an online site publisher will dramatically reduce your learning curve because it automates many of the manual processes of FrontPage and offers a variety of integrated features not offered by FrontPage. Another plus: like me, you will be able to manage your sites from anywhere in the world, accessing your own Control Panel, just like I do.

Now, don’t let this confuse you, for we walk through this in more detail later. What you need to know now is that you can run your online business from anywhere in the world and given the amount of traveling that Arlene and I now can enjoy, this is a must for me! It’s true. I have managed my sites from many exotic places across the globe. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Because my sites are accessible online I have managed them from a cruise ship in the Eastern Caribbean. I have checked my traffic stats and worked on my sites from an Internet café in Maui. I must say that this makes work much more enjoyable! And, it just makes better sense. I access my email online using Gmail. I access my commission reports online for my various merchants and Google AdSense. And, using an online site publisher, I can also have full access to my sites – all from anywhere and at any time. Bon voyage. ☺

Templates are good for beginners (and veterans) As you know, I was in the telecommunications and advertising arena prior to moving into affiliate marketing. In those days, I was using Microsoft Word and had gained familiarity with Windows 95 and the Internet, – because much of the back-end management was done online. When I decided to build my first site, I had a fairly easy time of making the transition from Word into FrontPage – since they are similar in many ways. But, if I hadn’t already become proficient with Word, prior to my introduction to affiliate marketing, I would have definitely started my business using pre-designed templates. And, in fact, I now use templates exclusively for all of my new sites. Templates include a matching color set, pictures or graphics, navigation bars and a pre-designed layout.


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They save time and they save effort and that translates into money. Templates also reduce the steep learning curve – plus completely eliminate the need for having a ‘designer’s flair’ for graphics and colors. If you are really serious about gaining financial independence with affiliate programs – then you should not limit your thinking to a single site – but think in terms of constructing a series of sites. And templates provide a low-cost, relatively easy way to do this – while offering a professional look and spicing things up with a little variety. It is my belief that we should let the designers do what they do best. This frees you up to hone in on what’s important to you, – which is high rankings – because spiders couldn’t give-a-hoot about the design aspects of your site. Although a professional, well-organized appearance is essential to building credibility with your visitor. And, credibility is needed to prompt action (click-through, purchases, etc.) and return visits. Again, these translate into more revenue for you.

Sample websites using templates What follows are four examples of sites built using templates:


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How easy is it? Although online website publishing software enables its users to publish to the web with amazing efficiency, – I need to caution you that if you are totally new to publishing to the Net, – then you will have to be patient with yourself while you go through the learning process. Because, even though your templates are pre-designed, – you will still need to know how to organize and manage your pages, upload graphics, add articles, and familiarize yourself with the many tools that are available.

Two things to make it easier I have given much thought as to how I could best assist beginners to gain proficiency in using online site publishing software. Simply put, this basic knowledge is needed to successfully complete what I know to be a vital step in the overall process of succeeding at publishing information-rich sites.


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After much thought, I have concluded that these are: 1. Find a user-friendly, integrated template and online website publishing service. 2. Demonstrate the ordering and template set-up process by subscribing to the service myself.

But, first – a little background Going back almost 10 years (boy, how times flies), I can remember my first introduction to a ‘website.’ My friend Brad Haima showed me a site he developed for himself using a software program called Corel Draw. At the time, I was contemplating building a website for my telecom company and was impressed with Brad’s work. So, I hired Brad to build a site for me. He did and the end result was great - but, it cost me thousands of dollars! I was not alone. At that time, anyone or any business in need of a site had to hire a designer and this required big, big bucks. Surprisingly to me, this is what most people still do. (But, you sure don’t need to.) Anyway, about two years later (in 1998) I purchased Microsoft Office software, which included Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft’s then fledging website publishing software called FrontPage. It wasn’t until the spring of 1998 that I gave this new software a try – and only then it was because my good friend Shawn Bouchard strolled into my home office in Abbotsford BC Canada and introduced me to the exciting world of affiliate programs. At that point, all I knew was if you wanted to build a website you needed to hire a graphic designer, which was expensive, or learn how to do it yourself using FrontPage.


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For my first site, I choose to do the latter - mainly because I didn’t have $2000-$3000 to hire a designer. So, I dug in, and with a little help from Shawn Bouchard who looked over my shoulder from time to time, and a basic understanding of Microsoft Word, which works very similar to FrontPage, I developed my first site. And many more sites followed from there. In 2001, I sat down with Chuck Anderson, who was my business partner at the time, to discuss coming up with a more efficient way to add content to our sites. This prompted Chuck, who boasted a programming background (which evolved from our telecom company days), to develop a simple software program that merged our content into our websites. It worked amazingly well and saved us many hours of time formatting pages. This was also my first experience with automation. And it sparked additional ideas on how to become more efficient, – including the development of our own Internetbased web publishing software that we still use internally, – and that I offered to students of my live trainings of 2001. In late 2001, when I came up with the idea for an affiliate marketing training manual, I wanted to offer readers an Internet-based software program to publish their sites. However, there wasn’t anything suitable. But, I did have a lot of experience with FrontPage and it was very suitable for the task of building sites, and this software was developed and backed by Microsoft. Not to mention that I had already developed many successful sites with the software, as well, so we decided to go with FrontPage in the manual. It was a good decision at that time. And since that time, Lynne Robson (www.apixelpixie.com) and Andrea Thompson (www.goldenpinecone.com) have © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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developed and a selection of low-cost FrontPage-based website templates designed for affiliate marketers. And Kevin Brown developed a software product (www.ezarticlepublisher.com) that merges articles in much the same way our initial software did. And for those who are familiar with FrontPage, and enjoy working with it, it’s still a good choice. However, there is now another option.

It’s a small world Enter Colin Wiebe, owner of Fast Creative Inc., a Canadian company, which specializes in fun and wonderful templates, – with over 1000 beautiful designs (and still growing), – PLUS these templates are plugged into an enormously effective, highly efficient website publishing and management system. The irony is that I surfed the Net off and on for the last few years searching for an online web publishing and template service – only to discover that Colin Wiebe, a good friend of mine, had acquired the rights to such a service. Go figure. And because of the service he provides you now can create a wonderful looking site – fast and easy. Colin’s system does an excellent job of simplifying the process of viewing, installing and customizing your template. His instructions are very helpful and his prices for access to the web-publishing and template service, templates and customization are excellent. He is very knowledgeable in website design and understands that importance of a “clean” looking site. And trust me, many designers do NOT.


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And best of all, you can get answer to your questions within one business day, and you have access to online tutorials and helpful documentations if you get stuck. And, you can test drive the system for 10-days for free. Plus, you have a full 100% money back guarantee for 30 days after you activate your website. I like that. But, before I give you a tour of the service, – we need to discuss how to choose a domain name.

A little show-and-tell goes a long way A while back, I registered Gas-BBQ-Grills.net to promote a lucrative merchant selling gas barbecue grills – but got too busy to build a site. So, in order to walk you through the process of selecting a template for the topic you are about to chose from the three industries you have researched in Step-2, Finding The Right Topic For You, – I will demonstrate the procedure of selecting a template and setting up your 10day free trial of the online website publishing software. But, first you need to DECIDE on which of your three topics to start with and register a domain name, don’t you?

It’s decision time This is a good time to grab a cup of coffee or tea and the three file folders with all your research. By now, these should contain the information you printed out on merchants, your keyword lists, etc. This is an important step and I encourage you to sit back, take some time to gather your thoughts (and your beverage of choice) and get ready to focus intently on your three topics.


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Sure, you may already have in mind your favorite, but keep all three folders handy for now. And take a deep breath. You are about to select the topic for your very first site! Of course, if you have followed my lead here and worked from your original BIG list, you are on track and it will be hard to make a mistake, so no worries! Why? Because, as I have explained before, you are “PRODUCT FOCUSED” and nothing can stop you now. In front of you, you have the information compiled on potential merchants in previous steps – information on the potential topics and a detailed keyword list, which clearly indicates that people are searching for your topic. For now, simply ignore the information you have on competition research. I will show you Step-6 how you can use that information to pinpoint which keywords you will want to target first. Your excitement should really be mounting here. You are about to really sink your teeth into this topic and, if it’s one you’re interested in (and you already know how important I think that is), then you are sure to have a great time (and make money, too). Armed with the information and the arsenal of tools provided in this handbook, you have everything – and I do mean EVERYTHING – you need to become a successful, money-making online publisher. Get Ready! Get Set! Let’s Go For It!


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Just don’t forget… Remember back in Step-2, I outlined a handful of important factors (six, to be exact) that I wanted you to strongly consider as you weighed your topic ideas. Real quick, I think these are worth repeating – for these factors serve as the base for which your online success will be built. Now, let’s look over these once again (very quickly ☺) for a strong foundation is what you want to build your Web-based business on, that’s for sure! 1. If you do not already know about your topic, make sure you are interested in it. 2. Make sure there are enough advertisers for your topic that you can generate the revenue you desire. You’ve already done the work here, so take just a minute to give it another glance. Remember: you can find this information in the research you printed off when you did the Google search for merchants. (Note: When you did this search, you also used the Overture Bid Tool to see what advertisers paid sponsors. Obviously, this is important information from Step-2, Baby Step-9, so take a minute again now to cement it in your brain. Remember: I like to see a bid rate of $0.50 (Advertiser’s Max Bid)). 3. Now, really ponder whether or not you can build a decent “keyword list” on your chosen topic. Look over your keyword list and make sure you have at least 50 keywords. 4. And, just how good is your “creative”? (Note: We worked on your “creative” when I had you print out the merchant information. If you are not confident about this, simply review this information again, for now is the time to get confident about your topic. 5. How generous is the program you are considering? (Again, we have already done this work. You may want to refresh your memory by reviewing the merchant’s program notes I had you print out earlier.)


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6. Now, one more time (because I cannot stress this enough), MAKE SURE YOUR TOPIC is one YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH (or, as I said above in #1, BE VERY INTERESTED IN IT)! Now, as we move forward here, I want to reiterate a few important points. After all, this is for the long-term, so what you need to understand about achieving online success is this: The truth is that I understand the challenges and fears you face as you venture into your new online business. It just wasn’t that long ago that I did the same. And, my students, the great communicators that they are, let me know where they find the occasional stumbling block. This said, it appears that the three areas most people find the most challenging include: 1. Writing content 2. Doing backward link checks (more on this in Step-5) 3. Choosing a topic FEAR NOT! Admittedly, I DO understand the confusion of dealing with Google’s mysterious backward link checks; however, I am a bit perplexed about the uncertainty associated with choosing a topic and writing content. As mentioned in the 2002 version of the manual, I think people get caught up with the notion that if they pick the “wrong” topic they’ll be a failure – and conversely, if they choose the “right” topic it’s the road to RICHES! Understandably they want to “get it right”. But I’ll be frank with you. THAT type of thinking will hold you back in the long term.


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Here’s the truth: More topics – industries offering revenue sharing – are piling into “performance based advertising” than me or ALL of my students combined could ever keep up with! There’s no right or wrong industry – topic – or category to build in. You just have to pick one – and get going. And there are NO guarantees, either! In fact, my VERY first topic – Free ISP (short for “free internet service provider”) – went out of business OVERNIGHT! Meaning I got up in the morning – got a Tim Horton’s coffee before sitting down at my computer – attempted to login to my merchant’s site (to see how much money I was making) and they were GONE! Gone. Their site had vanished overnight along with all the commissions they owed me. In fact, almost every merchant in the free ISP industry had gone out of business because of the infamous dot com crash of early 2000. And the kicker was that my previous check was for US $5000! So ask yourself. Did I make a mistake? Did I get into the wrong industry? Of course not. Just trust yourself here. And realize that now – more than ever – you’ll need to take the long view. You need to think: I’m a publisher. I publish topical websites. Every page I put up is a potential revenue-generating page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Some pages will rank highly. Some pages won’t. Some industries will be highly profitable. Others won’t. Some sites mature fast. Some sites mature slowly. Some sites are duds. Some sites are winners. Some industries are seasonal. Others are not. Do I care? Well, not really. Because I’ll keep publishing as long as I can find fresh search terms being used at the search engines. (keyword lists) And that’s a long way off because the masses are coming online in droves – and they’re looking for products to buy. And merchants are looking for them. And lucky me – and lucky you – we’re right in the middle as website publishers. Choose a topic. And get going. You’ll figure out other topics as your new career unfolds. It’s almost a given. The bottom line: Take the plunge and get wet. Once in, you will find that navigating these waters is a breeze – with a little help from this manual and your desire to succeed – you’ll be a floating success before long!


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Baby step #1: Now it’s time to decide on a keyword-based domain name Before you start looking at template designs, you should settle on which of the three industries have the most appeal to you at this point, – then register your domain name based on a top keyword from the list you created at Wordtracker. Grab this list and a pen. You are about to doodle (and brainstorm) a bit. As I mentioned earlier, the ideal domain name will contain what is known as a primary keyword (or keyword phrase), – which is usually a word that is highly searched and near the top of your keyword list. (As long as it isn’t a proprietary trade name) IMPORTANT NOTE: Most companies are very protective of their trade name (I.e. Capital One® Visa®) and restrict the use of them in a domain name. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I received a cease and desist letter for a domain name I had registered (www.capitalone-visa.net), and had to take the site down resulting in a loss of revenue. For some of you, the idea of using keyword phrases, instead of words with snazzy marketing appeal, may require a major shift in philosophy. This is because in the Dot Com world you are surrounded by classic examples of the blind-leading-the-blind. There are many myths on this subject, such as: 1. Your domain name needs to be short 2. Conversely, avoid long names 3. If it has to be multiple words, then condense them into one long word 4. Catchy or cute domain names work best © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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5. Avoid hyphenating (dashes between words) 6. The good domain names are all taken 7. And the latest one, get a domain “brand” The truth is… …the keyword list before you contains the VERY BEST words to use in your domain name, – mainly because of the strategic advantage of link-popularity, – which we thoroughly cover in Step-8, Building Traffic from Multiple Sources. But, it won’t hurt, as far as spiders and surfers are concerned, either. For example, if the first phrase the spider sees when arriving at your site is golf-equipment.com, – then it concludes, “aha, this site is probably about golf equipment.” Then it looks for supporting evidence in the title tag, followed by the headlines and body, – and in some cases checks the META tags embedded in the HTML. If, instead, it reads, karen’s-online-store.com, you’ve inadvertently confused it. Is it about Karen? What kind of online store? And, what if Karen ran all the words together, – as so many do, – forming Karensonlinestore.com, – as she sees all the BIG guys doing? NOW the spider is really confused! Doesthismakesensetoyou?

Remember, – be “kind to spiders” And, it doesn’t hurt to be very specific with potential visitors, too.


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Have you ever landed on a search engine top 10-page and eyeballed the list before clicking on a site? Are you not doing this in an attempt to guess whether a particular site – based solely on its name – has greater relevancy to the search you’ve just made? If, for instance, you were looking for a low-interest credit card, would you not give more credence to a site named low-interest-credit-cards.com, over a site named financialproducts.com? I rest my case.

A further illustration As you now know, the best keywords are those exact words that surfer’s type into search engines with the most frequency. So if, for example, the phrase “low interest credit cards” was at (or near) the top of a keyword list associated with the credit card industry, – then I would know that it gets searched more often than the others. So then, – my preferred choice as a domain name would be low-interest-credit-cards.com in order to establish without a doubt to the GREATEST NUMBER of potential visitors that MY SITE can fulfill their needs best. IMPORTANT NOTE: although the ‘spiders’ ignore spaces, the hyphen’s (or dashes) are necessary to satisfy the domain registrars’ requirements that spaces or commas be avoided. And, please, do not worry if your best keyword phrase appears to be to long, – because the vast majority of people who land on your site will have an easy hyperlink from the search engine listings.


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It’s easy to find the perfect domain name Did you know that you can find the PERECT domain name for your topic by simply adding a word to the beginning or end of the keyword? In the example below I show how you can use A1-rockinghorses.com, etc. (for keyword: rocking horses). In addition, you can add a word to the beginning or end, like this: exquisite-rocking-horses.com, or rocking-horsesgalore.com. and get great results! I use my thesaurus to help me here and you can too. You undoubtedly have an electronic version with your Word software, which is located under the Tools section (located in the toolbar when you open a Word document). Once you open up this nifty tool, all you have to do is type in the word you want to find synonyms for, and you will have an entire list to choose from. For instance, I had a look at my electronic thesaurus and typed in the word ‘fine’. From the list that popped-up, I selected the word the ‘exquisite’ for the rocking horse example. If you cannot locate this tool or, for whatever reason, are not comfortable using it through Word, simply go to: http://www.reference.com This little-known technique will give you MANY more options for acquiring the best domain name for your keyword-focused site. For example, – let’s say I want to represent rocking horse merchants. So I check on the availability of rocking-horses.com and it’s gone – as I’m sure it is. Then, – just try for A1-rocking-horses.com. Or, if it’s gone, – try A2, or AA or rocking-horses-4u and so on. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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That way, you get the keyword you’re after, – rocking horses – even though someone else has registered another version. This information will allow you to acquire excellent domain names in some very competitive industries.

The dashes vs. no dashes debate Periodically over the last 5-6 years, I hear someone make the comment that having dashes in your domain name is a bad thing and will cause your site to be penalized by the search engines. And Matt Cutts, a senior Google engineer, recently offered the following information regarding this statement on his blog; “To answer a common question, Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url. Of course I can only speak for Google, not other search engines. And bear in mind that if your domain looks like www.buy-cheap-viagra-online-while-consolidating-yourdebt-so-you-can-play-texas-holdem-while-watchingporn.com, that may still attract attention for other reasons.” http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vsunderscores/ And what Matt has to say is good enough for me. So, suffice it to say, I am sticking with the dashes. And, I can tell you that using dashes in my URLs has never prompted a penalty!

So, what’s it gonna be? Hopefully, the preceding explanation has convinced you to go with a keyword-based domain name – one with dashes – rather than a “pet name” you may have chosen before starting this course. If so, then all you need to do is work down your list of keywords and jot down some likely choices. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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It-really-is-as-simple-as-that.com Just kidding. ☺

Baby step #2: Register your domain name at Domain Maniac www.domain-maniac.net

As you can see in the above screenshot, – Domain Maniac also offers hosting, – but, disregard hosting for now. You will also notice that they offer the option of –.org, .net, .biz, .tv, etc. But, as you now know, getting your preferred name at .com should NOT be a problem. All of my sites are either –.com or –.net. And I only go to .net, – if my preferred name is not available at .com. but is still available at .net.


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By resorting to .net, I get the best keyword into my domain name without adding the above-mentioned letters or numbers. But, either way, you’re fine.

Just do it So have your credit (or check) card handy. Then search your name.

You will instantly be informed whether you domain name is available after doing your search. And, if it is, put it into your shopping cart and pay for it. Now, here’s some “insider information” for you. It is important that you register your new domain name for a minimum of two or three years. Why? Because the search engines have access to this data, and the search engine spammers typically register their domain names for only one year. And you can’t afford to be associated with spammers! In fact, these short-life sites are referred to as “throw away” domains, so don’t fall into this trap. Note: It’s not at all uncommon for spammers to register hundreds and even thousands of domain names. And once they lose their rankings, they simply throw away the domain name.


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By registering a domain name for more than one year, this will help to differentiate your site from the spammers. I recommend that you register your domain name for at least a two-year period as shown below.

Thankfully, the Net has evolved. Trust and credibility have become important issues. This was even discussed at a search engine conference I attended in Las Vegas. What I learned and want to pass on to you about this is: Search engines now want to know who owns the website and by providing the information on the website. Therefore, by NOT hiding your WHOIS information your site WILL be looked upon more favorably both now and in the future. As a result, I am no longer selecting the Enable Privacy option shown below.


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During the domain name registration process, you will need to enter the following primary and secondary name server information. Primary nameserver:

ns1.domaincityservers.com

Secondary nameserver:

ns2.domaincityservers.com

You can easily do this by simply clicking on the DNS Info tab (shown below) and entering the information into the appropriate fields. Next, just press the ‘Submit Hosting Option’ button.


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Once you press the ‘Submit Hosting Option,’ you will be directed to the Billing Information page. You will complete your purchase here. Once payment is accepted, you will receive order confirmation by email. Also included in this email will be your Username and Password. Both will be needed to log in to your Domain Maniac control panel when it comes time to renew your domain name. When this email arrives, – please print it and create a paper file in a folder with the name of your newly purchased domain name AND registration date on the outside of the folder for easy reference. If you have downloaded a copy of the Affiliate Organizer as recommended in Step 1 – How To Get And Stay Organized, you should take the time now and enter the information there, as well. Also, copy or save it to your email based password folder.

Time flies It is vitally important that you keep track of the registration dates for every domain name and website that you register. This is because, – although the registrar normally notifies you prior to your expiration date, – it is STILL your responsibility to re-register your domain name in a timely fashion. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your site go down, – and possibly having all of your hard-won traffic go to someone else who registered the domain name after you. And that would be a bad thing.


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Baby step #3: Visit ez-WebBuilder.com Now, let’s have some fun. Let’s go to website publishing service I’ve been teasing you about to look for a good template for my Gas-BBQGrills.net site and so that I can show you around. As you can see by the screen shot below, the service is called the: www.ez-webbuilder.com As you’ll see when you click on the ‘Try it Free’ graphic, there are 1000 template designs to choose from.

As you can see, the first 30 designs are instantly accessible, and as they say “if you don’t like any of these templates, you can easily change it as soon as you get on your site by clicking on the ‘Design’ button”.

Bottom line: Don’t worry about picking the “perfect” template right now.


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And, if you do not see what you believe to be the “perfect” template here, not to worry, – I’ll show you how to modify any template by adding a low cost header graphic. You can simply skip the ‘Choose Pages’ page and can modify this information later.

Now, go ahead and click on the ‘Next Step’ button to complete the sign-up process for the 10-day free trial.

Sign-up for the 10-day free trial I am going to help you understand exactly what’s going on here and will help you fill out this form. You see, during this 10-day free, you will be given a temporary website address (i.e. www.gas-bbq-grills.ezwebbuilder.com). This allows you to take the next 10 days and get familiar with the service. I recommend that you use your website address for their trial period as I have shown below. Once you pay for the site, your website address will change to the one you registered (I.e. www.gas-bbqgrills.net) at Domain Maniac.


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Once you have completed the form, press the ‘Build Site’ button to access the system. Take a minute or two to stretch and to grab a snack. We are going to settle in for some fun, and get-to-know the tools time together.

Test the waters I suggest that before you choose a template, you take a quick tour of the ez-WebBuilder to gain an overview of the features, – but keep in mind, – that some of the terminology may be unfamiliar if you are totally new. If so, I would suggest that you print as much as you can and study up. You will need to learn the ‘lingo’ of the system at some point anyway, – and the ez-WebBuilder provides an © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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excellent getting started tutorial, knowledge base, FAQ, and documentation which can serve as an excellent primer. So please take the time needed to get comfortable with the ez-WebBuilder and try to learn your way around and some of the basic terminology in the process.

Baby step #4: Let’s select a template

When you click on the ‘Design’ icon you will be presented with over 1000 beautiful designs contained within 37 categories. A good way to go about this is to have a quick look through the categories and jot down any interesting designs, – those that you feel could be ‘a match’ for the topic you’ve chosen. Then scroll back and open the interesting ones, by clicking on the thumbnail, for an enlargement. Printing them for comparison may also be a good idea.


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Don’t panic if you cannot immediately see a design that’s even remotely associated with your industry because all of the templates can be customized. As you will see later, I had to choose a site designed originally for a horse site, – but with the replacement of a single graphic was able to transform it quite nicely for my purposes.

Interchangeable header graphics are important All of the templates have interchangeable header graphics. In the template below, – and with all templates, – the header graphic can be replaced with another graphic transforming it into another theme suitable for any topic.

Design services you may need Please check out Colin’s full list of design services. However, other than maybe having him assist with replacing a graphic or adding your site name, you really should be able to do what you need to do to build a winning site with the basic templates’ he provides. www.ez-webbuilder.com/host/page/1386.htm


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More on this later.

Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of the ez-WebBuilder.

Baby step #5: Okay, I want THAT one After getting a good overview of the templates, – I selected the ‘horse’ template from the animal’s category, – and will replace the existing graphic with an image suitable to a BBQ grill site. As you will see shortly, this template could easily serve any number of industries, – because with the graphic replaced it had a whole new look.

Baby step #6: Complete the checklist for Step #4 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #5, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – Decide on a keyword-based domain name Baby step #2 – Register domain name. Baby step #3 – Visit ez-webbuilder.com Baby step #4 – Let’s select a template Baby step #5 – Okay, I want THAT one Baby step #6 – Complete the checklist for Step #4 © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Once you have… …a website under construction, then… …you are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 5 #5 B Bu uiilld diin ng gW nn niin ng gW Wiin bssiitteess Weeb Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …you will understand how to organize your words and your pages - you will modify your template, ultimately understanding EXACTLY how to construct your own winning website - one that will have a primary keyword-based navigation bar, - where each of your 5-6 buttons will link to a SINGLE Product page containing a compelling headline and 300+ words of text, - plus a strategy for adding NUMEROUS Article pages that each link back to the most appropriate product page. PLUS, you will have completed the page optimization process by: Having strategically placed your Primary Keyword and your Tier-1 Secondary keywords throughout the text. Bolding and hyperlinking each pages' Primary keyword, - preferably to a related Product page, Article or merchant. Italicizing each pages Primary keyword once somewhere near the top of the page, preferably in your headline or sub-headline. Randomly included your Tier-2 Secondary keywords throughout the text.


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Step #5 - Building Winning Websites

Where the rubber hits the road I know the above description for the goal of this step, is probably quite a handful for some of my entry-level readers to grasp. Yet do not despair. Because once you get through this major step, you are well on your way to having a profitable website. I would encourage ‘newbies’ to read this chapter right through once, without implementing, then return and reread it again. I’m sure the pieces to the puzzle will begin to fall into place once you’ve read it a few times. This way you will be more prepared for the required action. And for those who have experience, – this module may also seem difficult. That’s because you will probably see a totally different approach to website navigation, content development and page optimization. This may result in the very human tendency to resist new knowledge when it seems to contradict what you have previously accepted as “the way it is”. And to those skilled readers, I invite you to follow my logic and implement the approach I describe – exactly. Otherwise you risk altering key components to a winning strategy. So don’t get too ‘creative’. And remember, – that because of the breathtaking rate-ofchange on the Internet, – what worked 6-months ago may not work today. Just follow the steps. You will be glad you did.


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And, as you move forward, keep in mind that this Step is all about understanding your site visitor – what they want to find at your site. Simple, yes; in fact, the truth is that the technical and seemingly complex information provided in this Step really all boils down to understanding what your site visitor wants and how to give it to them. In fact, keyword searches reflect the questions visitors are asking. Your job as an online publisher is to answer these questions with solutions. Because the “arc” of this chapter is so long, – I have carefully divided it into two parts: 1. Organize your words – Here you will learn the tried-and-true techniques and sure-fired success strategies I use every day when I organize my own words. It’s imperative you understand this more technical aspect of organizing your words before proceeding to Step 6, where we dive headfirst into the nitty-gritty of crafting compelling, valuable articles/copy for your site. 2. Modify your template – Here we go back to ezWebBuilder and go through, step-by-step, the process of building a website together. In doing this, I will show you exactly how to construct a site that sells! Remember, I introduced you to ez-WebBuilder in the previous Step, Step 4. Get ready to have some fun with it here in Step 5 (which you deserve after making your way through the proceeding technical aspects of organizing your copy.) An Important Note: In this Step, I actually build a website right before your eyes. Now, I strongly discourage you from copying this site exactly, for many reasons. First, remember the example of the little chicken story I provided in Step 1. Well, if everyone builds the same site, we are all crammed into the same corner, and many will not survive. Second, copying this site defeats your best efforts here, for the search engines rely on very precise © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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duplication filters and when they ‘sniff out’ duplication, one or more of the same sites will be thrown out, wasting all of your time and hard work. I have to tell you that when I released the first edition of this Handbook, many readers simply copied my site example; thus, I am speaking to YOU from experience! The truth is, as I have said before, you want to be unique enough to side-step market saturation, while being popular enough that you are supported by merchants (and buyers). This is not achieved by copying (which I go into more in Step-6). Now, enough said about that. Let’s keep going… But, before getting into the precise steps you need to take to complete this rather lengthy module, I would like to “tee things up” a bit with an overview of my approach to building winning sites. What follows in the next several pages may seem a little advanced for my entry level readers because I’ll be using terms that may be new to you. But everything will be explained in great detail as you actually implement the steps. And, as I said earlier, – just read for now. Things will begin to make sense as you go.


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PPaarrtt 1 gaan niizzee yyoou 1– –O Orrg urr w dss woorrd

An overview of my approach to site navigation In a nutshell…a site with between 50-300 articles (or more depending on the length of your keyword list) linking back to 5-6 ‘product pages’ is a money machine if you follow my guidelines.

‘Product’ pages are designed to make money The pages that link off of your navigation bar buttons are what I call ‘product pages’. These so called product pages will contain a compelling headline, plus 250-300 words (4-6 paragraphs) of well researched, eloquent and concise content, – optimized fully for a single primary keyword and partially optimized for tier-1 and tier-2 secondary keywords – PLUS have links to the all important merchants. And there will be only one product page per navigation bar button. Therefore, because I recommend a “short list” of (navigation bar) buttons, – between 5-6 is fine, – that means you will only need the corresponding 5-6 product pages. But this does NOT mean you need 10-12 different merchants. That’s because many merchants will do double-duty and appear on several different product pages. Frankly, I do very well on sites that feature as few as two or three unique merchants appearing on each product page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #5 - Building Winning Websites - Part 1 – Organize your words

‘Article’ pages are designed to link to your product pages All of my sites consist of both ‘product’ pages and what I call ‘article’ pages. I have any number of article pages linking back to only 5-6 product pages. An article page is similar to a product page, but has three important differences: 1. They are each optimized in the same way as your product pages, – but utilize the numerous other words that make up your keyword list, – as long as the count for each remains above 10 as you learned earlier. 2. They have no links to merchants. 3. They provide visitors with an easy-to-follow link at the bottom of each article to one or more of the product pages.

‘Article’ pages all point to a ‘product’ page Article pages are strategically designed for search engine spiders, – which will hopefully index them high enough so that search engine visitors will find them. And when a visitor lands on any of these relevant ‘article’ pages, – they are ALSO exposed to your product-page oriented navigation bar, – as well as a text link to one of your product pages. And hopefully, these kind visitors, – who found some pertinent information in the article you wrote, – will either click on one of your navigation bar buttons or hyperlinked keyword, – opening the all important product page.


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Articles galore Once your 5-6 product pages have been written, added to your site, fully optimized, merchants added, submitted to the search engines and inbound links gathered, you will begin the task of picking off the remaining keywords. Most of you will have keyword lists totaling in the hundreds, while others will have less than a hundred. Your task is to research and write at least one article a day, – fully optimized for a single primary keyword, and partially optimized for tier-1 and tier-2 secondary keywords (more on that later) – until you have drilled down your keyword list to where the count no longer exceeds 10. If you have 120 keywords on your list, you should have 120 articles. Many of my sites have hundreds of article pages, – thereby increasing the exposure to my all important navigation bar and product page link. By having a ‘content-rich’ (article-rich) website you ALSO improve your relevancy score at most search engines, – especially when following my latest techniques for organizing your internal links.

The strategic reason for leaving merchants off article pages And the reason these article pages do not contain links to merchants is simple, – merchants come and go. By limiting their placement to only a handful of pages rather than including them on every page on your site, – whenever you need to replace or repair a link, – you won’t have the tedious task of sorting through dozens or even hundreds (or thousands – if building many sites) of pages to do so. And although your visitor will only see a 5-6 page website, – based on their observation of your navigation bar menu,


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– the ever important spider sees all of your internal links and ranks it accordingly. So you get “brownie points” with the spiders without distracting your visitor with too many options or creating a massive workload when managing your links. The schematic below is a simple illustration of how my sites are structured, – and hopefully yours will be too. Schematic of how my sites are organized:

Home Page – also a Product page

Merchant #1

5-6 Product Pages

Merchant #2

50-300 Article pages

Merchant #3

Navigation bar buttons with a difference Remember, – the template you have chosen has been essentially designed as an online brochure. It is a destination point, – meant to inform its visitors about a company, its products, press releases, about us, etc. However, your site will be developed with a different purpose entirely. Your site will function as an intermediary, – acting as a bridge to ANOTHER company, – your merchant, – who will then fully inform the visitor about their products or services, – and hopefully close a sale, – so that you get a commission. Seeing yourself as a researcher first, – and clearly recognizing the difference between your sites’ role and the © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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role of your merchants’ site, – is ABSOLUTELY essential to your success with my methods.

Less is more I saw some of my Vancouver students struggle with this. They were attempting to do too much with their sites. Less-is-more is an expression that aptly describes my approach to publishing eloquent, concise information on the Net, – while at the same time succeeding in a BIG way referring quality merchants to my many visitors. So, while keeping these important tactical differences in mind, – you will completely alter the navigation bar to suit your purposes, – even deleting a few buttons because as you will see, 5-6 works better than 10. For you, the navigation bar has a single purpose: Inform your “interested” visitor about the precise topic of every one of your product pages. And, they HAVE to be interested, – or they wouldn’t have found your site by doing a keyword search in the first place – am I right?

It PAYS to think like a surfer! Imagine a visitor lands on an article page (or product page). They linger a bit and notice some relevancy. But they want more. With the ever-present BACK button on their browser looming large, they skim down your navigation bar menu in a nanosecond. Sites that only name their buttons as, products, press releases, about us, etc. have wasted an AWESOME opportunity to also offer some specific information that © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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might result in an internal click, rather than a departure (usually forever). You however, have stacked the deck in your favor by choosing the very best (most searched words or phrases) for your navigation bar menu. No one searches for ‘products’, ‘about us’ or ‘press releases’ at search engines. People want specifics. So for goodness sakes, give them specifics. You see, the espionage you did at Wordtracker has alerted you to some of your industries’ most searched words and phrases, – so why not USE this information to clearly signal to your visitor that they are on the right site.

A good example of a home page The screenshot below depicts a website that was I put together some time ago. It’s about hip replacement. As you can see, there are 10 other hip-related product pages on this site, (see navigation bar), – and probably a hundred or so article pages feeding back to either this home page or one of the other product pages. NOTE: A typical site will normally have 5-6 product pages, however in some cases, sites may have a few more as is the case with the hip site example. I feel that this site offers the visitor a clean, well-organized page that would probably peak the interest of most people needing this type of treatment. As we plow through this training module, you will learn all the tips, tricks and techniques for organizing your merchants, product pages, primary keywords, tier-1 and tier-2 secondary keywords, researching and writing compelling headlines and theme-based text, importing it all into your template, renaming your navigation bar © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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buttons, embedding your keywords into the HTML code, renaming your files appropriately, – and finally organizing your internal links for high link-popularity scores. Everything described in the above paragraph (which was quite a mouthful, I know) went into the simple, but powerful example that follows. And all you need to do for a similar result is to take it one step-at-a-time. Take a close look at hip-replacement-care.com.


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Some definitions are in order I’ve been throwing a lot of new stuff at you in this module, so I thought I’d pause a bit for some clarification. That’s because many of my entry-level readers are probably scratching their heads right now, – wondering how the heck they are going to do what’s required. And probably some of you pros are seeing a different picture emerging here, too. So let me define a few common Webmaster expressions in addition to some of my own terminology. And as you read these definitions, please keep in mind that you will be given precise instructions on how to execute each throughout the remainder of this module. For now, simply read to get a better grasp of this more technical aspect of word organization. When it comes to applying it, I’ll be there to walk you through it. The important thing for now is that you work to just get acquainted and get comfortable with the following industry-specific jargon/words: 1. Keyword list – A list of words generated through research into the precise words and phrases that are most often searched by Internet surfers bearing some relation to your industry. 2. Spiders – Search engine programs that scour the Net collecting page content data for use in matching this data to searches done by its users. 3. Primary keyword – The single word or phrase chosen from your keyword list that is fully optimized as ‘spider food’ for any page you add to your site by giving it top priority across-the-board. 4. Tier-1 secondary keyword – One or two other keywords (the next best) that are partially optimized as ‘spider food’ for any page you add to


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your site by including them with the Primary keyword wherever possible. 5. Tier-2 secondary keyword – A group of 15-20 additional keywords, which are kept in mind as you write your content. No attempt is made to fully or partially optimize them for the particular page you are writing. They are used editorially and included in the text, as they would naturally appear, instead of forcing their repeated occurrence, as you do when fully or partially optimizing the Primary and Tier-1 secondary keywords. If spiders detect them, – then all the better. 6. Product pages – Fully optimized for a Primary keyword and partially optimized for one or two Tier1 Secondary keywords. You will generally select these words from the top positions of your keyword list because you want the greatest possible exposure for these pages, which are limited to only 5-6 per site and contain links to your merchants. 7. Navigation bar button – Named after a Primary keyword, they perform the task of alerting your visitor to the main topic of your 5-6 product pages. 8. Merchant – Sometimes called an advertiser, these vendors are the main purpose for developing websites if you are intending to succeed with affiliates programs. Links to them appear only on product pages. 9. Publisher – Sometimes referred to as a Webmaster or affiliate, – these are the people being sought by the ever-increasing number of company’s embracing a pay-for-performance model of advertising. It’s what you DO as an affiliate marketer, – publish wellresearched information to the Net, while displaying a graphic or descriptive text in order to advocate that your visitor click-thru to one or more featured merchants bearing some relation to your content. 10. Affiliate program – Sometimes called associate, reseller or referral programs, these are one or twotiered commission structures that enable vendors to © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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compensate affiliated publishers by setting cookies (a tracking program) on each visitor’s browser that identifies the referring publisher so a commission can be tracked and paid. 11. Sponsored link program – Ad serving technology that serves ads relevant to a pages content and compensates publishers for each click generated. 12. Article pages – 250 to 300 words of text, fully optimized for a Primary keyword and partially optimized for one or two Tier-1 Secondary keywords. By default, any keyword that did not rank as one of the Primary keywords for a Product page can be used as the Primary keyword for an Article page. Every Article page links back to one of your Product pages. You can write as many as your list of keywords allows. No sense in writing for keywords that got searched less than 10 times, though. 13. Page optimization – Your attempts to alert the search engine spiders as to the main topic of each page of your site by strategic placement of predetermined words and phrases (keywords) into both the hidden “HTML view” and the “text view” seen by visitors. In addition to embedding your keywords into the HTML, as described later, – you will more fully optimize each page by doing the following also: a. Bolding and hyperlinking each pages Primary keyword once to a related product page or merchant, – preferably near the top. b. Italicizing each pages Primary keyword once somewhere near the top of the page, preferably in your headline or sub-headline. c. Optimizing each page for keyword density by including your Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords: 1. Primary Keyword: Once in your headline. Once in the first paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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2. Tier-1 Secondary Keywords: Once in the first or second paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page. 3. Use Keyword Variations: These are individual words that are based on your Primary & Secondary keywords. (Further explanation and examples to follow) They should be used repeatedly in the following density. 1) 300 word article: no less than 24 times – no more than 36 times 2) Extrapolate the above ratio on longer articles d. Randomly included your Tier-2 Secondary keywords throughout the text in no particular density, but added only as they would naturally appear editorially. e. Following the new internal linking guidelines fully described in Step-8, Boost Your Rankings With Link-Popularity. 14. Title tag – Every web page has a title, which is clearly visible in the browsers’ colored bar at the top of the page. Usually limited to 64 characters, this Title Tag is written with Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords in mind. 15. Meta Description tag – Also embedded into the HTML, – this is a one or two sentence description written with keywords, but also bearing in mind that most search engines copy this description into the view seen by surfers. Best to limit it to 20-30 words. 16. Meta tags – Although not as important as they used to be, these are your Primary, Tier-1 and Tier2 Secondary keywords embedded into the meta-tag area of the HTML. 17. Alt tags – These refer to pictures or graphics on your page. Usually hidden from view, unless the © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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cursor is held above them. It’s to your advantage to name each graphic or picture after that pages Primary keyword. 18. Heading 1 (H1) – By adding the H1 tag to the headline in the Basic HTML Editor view in the ezWebBuilder. 19. Heading 2 (H2) – Follow the same procedure for the sub-headline or second headline.

Just follow my lead To make it easier for you to get comfortable with all of the above, I will engage in a little ‘show-and-tell.’ Everything you will be doing to research, write and optimize your own site will be demonstrated for you as I build one of my BBQ sites’ product pages right before your eyes, throughout the remainder of this module. Hopefully, this example will encourage you to take the recommended baby steps with greater confidence. However, since each industry has its own peculiarities, you will be required to exercise your own judgment when deciding on keywords, navigation bar button names, best merchant categories, ideal number of merchants per page, exact number of navigation bar buttons, number of article pages, etc. That’s because, although I urge you to follow my steps, so that you achieve results similar to mine, you must also exercise your own discretion. There are indeed many things of a subjective nature that also go into a winning website. As you watch the construction of my BBQ site, you should be able to determine which of my decisions are fundamental and which are discretionary. The fact is that each of us has our own style. I want you to express that style. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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But, I also want you to remain consistent with the underlying structure that I propose in order to get the traffic, – that gets the click-thrus to a merchant, –that gets the checks-in-the-mail, – that gives you the lifestyle you most prefer.

First – an OVERVIEW of the process of building a product page before you begin 1. Organize your keywords, merchants and Google PageRank with the chart provided a little later. a. Decide on an industry b. Decide on a few potential merchants c. Determine the number of product pages, – preferably 5-6, but with a minimum of 3 d. From your keyword list choose a popular Primary keyword to represent each of your 5-6 product pages e. Do a PageRank and Backwards Link check at Google before committing to your first choice of a Primary keyword f. Decide on the name for each navigation bar button (usually the Primary keyword exactly, unless too long) g. From your keyword list pick one or 2 next best keywords to become Tier-1 Secondary keywords for each product page h. From your keyword list and more importantly your research, pick another 15-20 words to become Tier-2 Secondary keywords for each product page (NOTE: during the research process, as you gather the information necessary for the topic, your notes will naturally include related Tier-2 keywords)


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2. Research and write 250-300 words (or more if necessary to cover the topic) of content, – while keeping in mind the visitor and the rules for keyword density, – into a word processor. (NOTE: I recommend that you write your content in a text editor (I.e. Microsoft Notepad), and NOT in Microsoft Word which has a tendency to include unwanted code that will corrupt the HTML of your page.) 3. In the ez-WebBuilder name your navigation bar menu. 4. Import into ez-WebBuilder each of your 5-6 pages of content and fully and partially optimize the HTML. 5. Name each product page file as the corresponding products pages’ primary keyword. NOTE: Please open the Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart and print it. You will need to fill this out as you organize your merchants and keywords for your 5-6 product pages. This chart becomes a handy blueprint for reference while writing your content and optimizing each page. It is an indispensable tool. Please don’t take shortcuts here. And, I suggest that you work in pencil with an eraser handy. Trust me, you’ll go through a lot of paper if you don’t. Get both charts by going to the Worksheets Appendix at the back of this manual.

Baby step #1: Pick your merchants NOTE: from this point forward you will need to have your Merchant, Keyword and PageRank Chart handy. The use of this chart will be self-explanatory. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I suggest you use pencil, since various ideas will suggest themselves to you as you go. In Step-2, Finding The Right Topic For You, you developed files on the various merchants for each topic you were considering. Now it is time for a careful review of those files. Assuming that you already know which topic you plan to represent, you need to pull those files and select the merchants that, at first glance, would be a good fit. The list for my BBQ site is as follows: 1. TheGrillSuperStore.com – 10-12% 2. Barbecues.com – 6% 3. Wal-Mart.com – 6% 4. Instawares.com – 6% 5. Amazon.com – 8% 6. OmahaSteaks.com – 8% The percentages shown above are respective of the commission rates.

Baby step #2: Categorize your product pages You have no idea of the tremendous competitive advantage you will have against other publishers who participate in Affiliate Programs by determining what types of merchants you plan to represent before you even write a single word of content. This gives your site focus. Spiders love focus.


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Readers do too. NOTE: As you may remember, we are only working with merchants we found by doing a Google search for affiliate programs for the sake of simplicity. But the fact is that in addition to the numerous independent affiliate programs available, there are several good affiliate networks to choose from. You will find a list of other affiliate networks in the Recommended Resource Appendix at the back of this manual. So, now that I have an idea of whom I plan to represent, – I need to take it one step further. To do that, I group my merchants into their product pages, – because this will be VERY helpful in suggesting the best choices, – for many, or all, of my primary keywords, – as you shall see. Here are the merchants I have selected for the site organized by “product pages”: 1. BBQs a. TheGrillSuperStore.com b. Barbecues.com c. OmahaSteaks.com 2. Grills a. TheGrillSuperStore.com b. Barbecues.com c. OmahaSteaks.com 3. Smokers a. TheGrillSuperStore.com b. Barbecues.com c. OmahaSteaks.com 4. Portable a. TheGrillSuperStore.com b. OmahaSteaks.com © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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5. Accessories a. TheGrillSuperStore.com b. Instawares.com 6. Plans a. Amazon.com Can you see how the above list (1-6) suggests the Primary keywords for my 6 product pages? 1. BBQs 2. Grills 3. Smokers 4. Portable 5. Accessories 6. Plans And I thought that since my keyword research shows that many are also looking to build their own BBQ, – I decided to add a page of BBQ plans. Now, I probably won’t create a Primary keyword or navigation bar button for the last merchant on my list, – steaks (OmahaSteaks.com – 8%), – but I will toss them into the mix of merchants on a few of my product pages to see how well they do with my visitors. And if they under-perform, – I yank them.

Baby step #3: Get your Google eyes Although I deal comprehensively with link-popularity in Step-8, Building Traffic from Multiple Sources. I need to get your attention on this subject before you decide on which keywords to use as your Primary keywords. Google, as many of you know, is the king of search engines.


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Not only are they more widely used than others, but also they feed the databases of several other search engines. And so, if you want to be successful with affiliate programs, then you will need to know about some recent changes to the algorithms at Google, in order to rank as highly as possible with them.

Google PageRank explained When Google’s spiders visit your site they not only do some quick math on your keywords, – but they also assign each page a “PageRank value” of 0 to 10. Normally, the page with the higher PageRank gets listed ahead of those pages with a lesser PageRank. So your goal is to get a higher PageRank than those who currently occupy the top positions at Google for any Primary keyword you are considering. And the main way you get PageRank is with “Backward Links”. NOTE: Although the term ‘Backward Links’ is a Google term, – other search engines have similar ranking criteria. So by optimizing for PageRank at Google, you simultaneously boost your link-popularity across the board. What Google seems to be saying is, …pages that have links back to them (backward links) MUST BE IMPORTANT… …so let’s make note of that and score it accordingly, – so that our visitors can find the important pages more easily than the others. And because you can easily do a Backward Links check at Google, – for any keyword you are considering optimizing a page for, – then you can know in advance… …how many Backward Links will be needed to outscore any site which currently hold top positions, – for that keyword, – at Google.


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For instance, when I did a Backward Links check for ‘barbecues’, – a Primary keyword I’m considering optimizing one of my product pages for, – I discovered that sites occupying the top 5 positions for that keyword all had a PageRank of between 5 and 7, (high) – with Backward Link totals ranging anywhere from 173 to 2510. Meaning, – forget about it! I’ll find another keyword. And although it may be less searched than ‘barbecues’, I will at least have a shot at high rankings. But, normally if you stay very product focused, – YOU won’t have this kind of competition. Later you will be shown how to specifically organize all of your internal links for MAXIMUM PageRank. My strategy for doing this is the most-up-to-date insider knowledge available, – so powerful in fact that I considered writing an entire manual on the subject. So please pay special attention to the Google PageRank procedures that follow, – as well as Step-8, Building Traffic from Multiple Sources. There is a right way to do it. And there is a wrong way to do it. So, I hope I’ve convinced you that by doing Backward Link checks at Google for all of your keywords prior to building pages around them; – you will gain one heck of a competitive advantage over Webmasters with no knowledge of how PageRank works. I will now walk you through the process of downloading Google’s’ control menu onto your browser, – so it’s right in front of you whenever you need to do the all important Backward Links check. Time to get your Google eyes.


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Go to Google at http://toolbar.google.com/ and follow the steps needed to install the Google toolbar.

With your Google Toolbar installed into your browser, you can now quickly and easily do the following strategic maneuvers: 1. Search the web for any keyword you’re considering. 2. Make note of the PageRank for each of the top sites found. 3. Do a Backward Links check for each of the top sites found.

Example So, as you know, I’ve already checked the PageRank and Backward Link totals for ‘barbecues’ and decided to take-apass. But, let’s say I check on ‘barbeque grills’. The sites that appear in the following screenshot are the result of that search. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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These websites occupy the top positions, – not only because they are properly optimized for the keyword, ‘barbeque grills’, – but also because of their respective ‘PageRank’ and ‘Backward Link’ totals. As Google says, PageRank is Google’s measure of the importance of this page. So, before I attempt to compete for these positions, – I would be wise to determine their PageRank AND total number of Backward Links, – in order to see what MY PageRank at Google would need to be in order to match (or exceed) theirs. And, as mentioned earlier, – by scoring a high PageRank at Google, – I also establish similarly high link-popularity scores at other major search engines.

Above are the results of a keyword search for ‘barbeque grills’. So, while ignoring the paid sponsored link at the VERY top of the list (highlighted in blue), – as you always do when assessing top-10 search engine rankings, – I open the top © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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guy in the free listings area, http://www.consumersearch.com/www/sports_and_leisure /gas-grill-reviews/ (see screenshot that follows). Being in the #1 spot, they have the position I would like to get, – if at all possible, – although any listing on a top-10 page is great. But let’s say I wanted THAT spot.

With their page open in my browser, I simply hold my cursor over the PageRank bar, – to determine its PageRank. As you can see in the screenshot above, – this page has a PageRank of 6, – which is good. http://www.consumersearch.com/www/sports_and _leisure/gas-grill-reviews/ Then I click on the Page Info button, – next to the PageRank bar, – which opens a drop-down menu from which I can choose to do a Backward Links check (shown below).


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Note: If you already have the Google Toolbar installed on your computer, but do not see the Page Info icon (shown above), you can turn it on by clicking on “Options” in the drop-down menu (shown below), and the locating the “More” tab and then checking the box next to the ‘Page Info’ icon.

At this point our only interest is the number of Backward Links to this page. I click on the Backward Links button, which opens the screenshot that follows (several paragraphs below). As you can see below, – in the blue bar that shows the results search, – similar to a keyword result search, – there are 7 Backward Links to the ‘barbeque grills’ page above. This essentially means that this page beat out EVERY OTHER page for the top position at Google when a surfer typed the word ‘barbeque grills’ into their search engine. I’ll cover this in more detail in Step 8, however at this point it’s important to know that anyone competing for this top spot at Google would have to consider, – getting the same number of backward links or backward links from pages with higher PageRank.


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Now, the origin of these Backward Links is of little interest to you, although they can be checked.

What you ARE interested in is the total. Because normally that total is the number Backward Links YOU will need to leapfrog ahead of any position you seek. In the above case, I would probably need 8 Backward Links, to beat out this spot. That’s assuming that my Backward Links were of the same quality (more on that later) and my page optimization and their page optimization were equal. The good news is that Google also counts Backward Links from other pages on your own site, granted at a lesser rate than a Backward Link that originates from another site, but they still count. So if, let’s say I was a prolific writer and had 100 ‘Article’ pages on my BBQ site, I could link 5-6 of them to my ‘barbeque grills’ product page.


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And if, I could entice 5-6 other webmasters to each point a link to my ‘barbecue grills’ product page from a quality page on their site, – I could probably become the new occupant of that top spot at Google for the keyword ‘barbeque grills’. But a further look reveals even better news. Because when doing Backward Link checks on the #2 and #3 spots, – I found Backward Link totals of 4 and 6 respectively, – which is easy to compete with. So I may elect to try and pick off the #2 and #3 spot, – instead of the #1 spot, – because fewer Article pages would need to be dedicated to the task, I.e. – 21 and 6 respectively (all other things being equal). And remember, the full significance of this may not become apparent to you until you’ve completed this manual, – or at least completed this chapter. So if it seems a little overwhelming, just be patient. Thankfully, the Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart you have been provided with will greatly assist you to properly weigh your options. But before we go to that chart and begin working with your keyword list I’ll give you three more definitions: 1. PageRank – The Google search engine’s measure of the importance of any given page in its database. 2. Backward Links – An incoming link to a page that originates from another page on the Internet. 3. Outgoing Link – The page from which a Backward Link originates. As you will see later, – it’s important to keep in mind, the difference between an “incoming” and “outgoing” link, – because by having “an over abundance” of outgoing links from one of your own pages, – you may inadvertently dilute your PageRank.


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Backward link anomaly explained Often I’d see top spots being occupied by pages with fewer backward links than others further down in the rankings. This was because Google assesses the sending pages PageRank as well. The higher the sending pages PageRank – the more weight it carried in pushing up your page. So once I could see how many backward links a competing page had – I’d make note of it. Then – within reason – I’d try to get a slightly higher number of backward links for my page (if they had five I’d try to arrange ten). Keeping in mind that inbound links coming from pages with a higher PageRank themselves carried more weight at Google – I also had a rule of thumb that said I’d only arrange links from pages with a PageRank of 3 or above.

NOTE: The entire subject of “arranging” inbound links is covered in my Google Mastery report, and in Step #8, which is provided FREE to all book buyers. I strongly recommend that you take some time to carefully review every aspect of this report, once you get to Step #8. For now, and for simplicity’s sake, you need to understand that the fact that you solicit links from other webmasters or offer your own professionally written content (PAD or Professional Article Distribution) embedded with links back to any pages you want high rankings for. And arranging these links is as important as ever.


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Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of the process I follow for doing a Google backward link check.

Baby step #4: Narrow down your keyword list Earlier in this manual you developed a keyword list at Wordtracker that may, or may not serve your purposes well enough to act as a narrowly targeted keyword list for the industry you have decided to pursue. The reason I say that is, – while working with students previously, – I witnessed that in nearly every case their initial keyword lists were too general in nature. This is understandable. When first venturing into Wordtracker most have only a vague idea of the role of these keywords or the industry they plan to pursue. So take a good look at your list again. Can you see 5-6 keywords in the top 20-30 words that could serve well as Primary keywords? Do these words bear a close relation to your merchant categories? For instance, if you were planning a site about Poker Chips, – can you see keywords bearing a close relation to any of the merchant categories below, – which I researched at Google (I.e. poker chip affiliate programs)? 1. Poker Chips


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2. Poker Chip Sets 3. Clay Poker Chips 4. Custom Poker Chips 5. Poker Chip Cases Can you see how the above Poker Chip merchant categories would serve you well if those exact phrases showed up near the top of your keyword list? Each could then be the Primary keyword for a product page about that subject, – as well as the perfect choice for a navigation bar button. So play with these ideas a bit, then…

If your first list is vague… That’s okay! It can still serve you by providing a point of comparison when rebuilding a new list at Wordtracker. And armed with your new understandings, – I think you will really “nail it” this time.

A more focused way to use Wordtracker www.wordtracker.com When you first created keyword lists you simply used a ‘single’ word that represented, – in a general way, – the industry you were considering. The result was probably a long list. But, here is a little trick I use to help sort this ‘long’ list into ‘separate’ lists for each planned product page. So go back to Wordtracker and simply enter each merchant category separately, – rather than searching the whole industry with one fell swoop, – as you did initially. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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So, for instance, – if I were planning to represent Poker Chip merchants, – instead of searching the Poker category as a whole, – I would create individual lists for each product page, such as, poker chips, poker chip sets, clay poker chips, poker chip cases, etc. Now when the Right Window appears, – with all words bearing a relationship to that word, – then go back and forth, selecting more words from the Left window, – as you did earlier, – until you have built up a ‘single list’ around a ‘planned’ product category, – instead of the industry as a whole. Then go to step #3 of the Wordtracker process to review. Now email yourself that more narrowly defined list. Then do the same for each product page you’re planning. What you end up with is 5-6 sets of beautifully organized keyword lists for each product page. This saves you a lot of time and simplifies the task of sorting your keywords into different groups. Here is the individual keyword list I created for the clay poker chips product page. Hi James Martell, Here are the results of your Wordtracker query selected from a database of 401 million search engine results. Please see http://www.wordtracker.com/help/databasesearchhelp.html for an explanation of each of the headings. Nos Count Predicted Keyword ---------------------------------------------------------------------1, 642, 746, clay poker chips 2, 142, 165, discount clay poker chips 3, 97, 112, tightpoker real clay poker chips 4, 89, 103, custom clay poker chips 5, 83, 96, tightpoker clay poker chips 6, 77, 89, professional clay poker chips 7, 75, 87, buy clay poker chips 8, 62, 72, real clay poker chips tightpoker 9, 53, 61, texas hold clay poker chips


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10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,

42, 22, 19, 18, 17, 14, 14, 14, 14, 12, 12, 12, 11, 11, 10, 10,

48, 25, 22, 20, 19, 16, 16, 16, 16, 13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 11, 11,

clay poker chips tightpoker cheap clay poker chips real clay poker chips all clay poker chips clay poker tightpoker.com chips personalized clay poker chips real clay tightpoker poker chips clay tightpoker poker chips tri color clay poker chips las vegas pro clay poker chips clay poker tightpoker chips dragon poker chips clay vintage real tightpoker clay poker chips real clay poker tightpoker.com chips real clay poker tightpoker chips poker chips clay

Because with your 5-6 lists in front of you, – you can easily see at a quick glance, – which words will serve as the best choices for Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords.

Baby step #5: Choose your Primary keywords Keyword Optimization all begins with the proper selection of each pages’ Primary keyword. Only a single keyword (or phrase) can occupy that position. Of all the keywords on your page, this is the only keyword that is FULLY optimized. For instance, it is the first word in your title tag, (only ONE keyword can be first, all the rest are secondary), the only one italicized, the only one bolded, etc. You are looking for the absolute best keyword to fully optimize for each Product Page. But this is not a simple matter of selecting the top word (most searched) on the list. PageRank and Backward Link checks may scare you away from certain keywords, – which is a good thing, – unless © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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you don’t mind being buried very deep on page 400 at Google. Experience has taught me that you are FAR better off choosing a Primary Keyword that was searched only 200 times last month, – if by choosing it you had a decent shot at a top-10 placement at Google (and the other search engines), – rather than feverishly optimizing for that ‘very special word’ that gets searched 2,000 times a month, – only to have no traffic at all because everybody and his brother is also optimizing for that very same keyword. And remember, you have 5-6 unique Product Pages to optimize for. So if you could get a top-10 ranking for each of your lesser-searched keywords, – let’s say 800 each month, – then THAT would be 4800 people (6 x 800) possibly finding pages of your site. Not bad. The Google PageRank and Backward Link checks are the benchmark you use to decide whether or not to pass on any given word as your PRIMARY keyword. Obviously, you want keywords with the most traffic, but you will have to balance out your decision with a Backward Links check.

You can win with 20-40 Backward Links Generally speaking, you should be able to successfully compete against pages optimized for your chosen keyword that have between 20-40 Backward Links. Because IF you write 100 Articles, let’s say, – you could then split 100 Article Pages into groups of 20 and link them back to 5 different Product Pages. (100 ÷ 5 = 20) Plus, of course, gathering the appropriate number of inbound links from other sites to your home and product pages, – which I’ll cover more on a little later in Step 8. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Who is number one on your list? So with your Keyword, Merchant and Backward Links Chart handy, do the process described above to determine a Primary Keyword suitable for each of your planned Product Pages. You want words near the top of each separate keyword list that have also been checked for PageRank and Backward Links. As in the ‘barbeque grills’ example, – be sure to check at least the top five to six sites, – as sometimes the Backward Link totals drop dramatically from the top position to the second or third position. I’d even seek the 4th, 5th, 6th, or 10th position for an excellent keyword. Once chosen, enter each Primary Keyword into the appropriate column along with its traffic count. Also enter the results of your PageRank and Backward Links check at Google. Your chart should really be coming to life by now. Can you see why I suggest using a pencil?

Baby step #6: Choose your Tier-1 Secondary keywords Once you’ve decide upon which word to FULLY optimize as your Primary Keyword for each Product Page, you can now more easily decide on which one other keyword phrase will serve as Tier-1 secondary keywords. This is usually quite easy. As a reminder, here is my definition of a Tier-1 secondary keyword: Tier-1 Secondary keyword – one other keyword phrase (the next best) that will be partially optimized as ‘spider © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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food’ for any page you add to your site by including them with the Primary keyword wherever possible. Later you will see the rules for inserting Tier-1 Secondary keywords to both your text and your HTML. But there are also important guidelines to follow when selecting these. They are: 1. One is enough. 2. It should be similar to your Primary Keyword, – but if it’s a phrase, then try to avoid duplication of your Primary keyword. 3. As with your Primary keyword you will need to do a PageRank and Backward Links check.

Here’s an example of avoiding duplication Let’s say I settled on the word ‘long distance’ as a Primary keyword. When searching for Tier-1 Secondary keywords, I notice words such as ‘best long distance’ or ‘long distance rates’. IF I were to choose one of the above phrases as Tier-1 Secondary keywords, – and include them along with my Primary keyword in the text and HTML in the recommended manner, – then I would inadvertently DOUBLE the density for the keyword ‘long distance’, because it now appears twice, – once in each keyword. No one knows the exact density that a keyword must achieve for maximum page optimization, – because not only does each search engine have its own ratios, – but also algorithms change as often as the weather. Some experts say that a keyword should appear in the text of your page as little as 5% of the total words on that page, – meaning no more than once every twenty words.


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Others say it needs to appear as much as once in every five words, – or 20%. I have had great success by including my Primary keyword and Tier-1 Secondary keywords as follows: 1. Primary Keyword: Once in your headline. Once in the first paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page 2. Tier-1 Secondary Keywords: Once in the first or second paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page a. Use Keyword Variations: These are individual words that are based on your Primary & Secondary keywords. 3. Tier-2 Secondary Keywords: Randomly included your Tier-2 Secondary keywords throughout the text in no particular density, but added only as they would naturally appear editorially. Further explanation and examples to follow. But rather than focusing on only one or two optimization strategies, (as many do) – I think that these days, it is a combination of things, – when done properly, – helps you to achieve your goal of getting Top-10 listings. So, back to my ‘long distance’ example. Given that my rules for keyword density are correct, – then you run the risk of overdoing it, – as far as spiders are concerned, – by selecting Tier-1 Secondary keywords with duplicate words. So be careful. NOTE: to those entry-level people who are wondering why the need for such precision, – I should point out that Search Engines are forever on the alert for ‘keyword spam’. A few years ago, – as the Internet began ‘cooking’ as a viable form of marketing, – the Search Engines got caught off guard, as unscrupulous marketers, who learned of their criteria, would simply inundate the Internet with irrelevant sites filled with keywords in order to market things of illegal or questionable value. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Stay on purpose All we are attempting to do with our websites is offer relevant information and related products and services. The Search Engines love relevancy because THAT’S what visitors hope for. Don’t you? So all we are doing is playing by the rules in order to help visitors find what they want. If we do our research wisely and optimize accordingly, then it’s a win for the Search Engine, a win for the surfer, a win for the merchant and a win for us.

Baby step #7: Choose your Tier-2 Secondary Keywords This one is easy. All you do is select similar, but different words from your keyword list and enter them into your chart as reference material while writing content for your pages. The only time you would optimize for them is to include them in the META tags along with your Primary and Secondary keywords. Other than that, they are not optimized at all. I will give you an example shortly. They are simply randomly included throughout your text in the ‘off’ chance that a spider finds them important. The fact is, that if you write numerous Article pages, then these Tier-2 Secondary keywords will ultimately be optimized as Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords anyway, – as you drill down your keyword list.

Baby step #8: Choose your Navigation Bar Button names This one is also easy. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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For now, – while working with paper, – simply go with the most likely keyword for your Navigation Bar Buttons.

And, understand the words themselves ARE important, – meaning they need to be keyword-based, – because in addition to the navigation bar menu, you will include a longer text-based version for your Bottom Menu.

Baby step #9: Select a few merchants (advertisers) for each Product Page Another easy one… I used to FILL UP my Product Pages with merchants, thinking, the more the merrier. But, over time I have determined that less merchants is definitely more in this regard for two reasons: 1. A confused mind says no. a. A friend of mine who sells for a living often touts the above saying. He concluded that whenever he had an interested buyer, the LAST thing he wanted to do was offer too many choices. The fact is, – that most of my revenue from any site is derived from a single


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merchant who usually appears above the others. 2. Each outbound link dilutes Google PageRank to some degree; by conferring a portion of whatever PageRank score it previously had on the receiving page. And so, if I had a page with very good PageRank, but, then loaded it with numerous ‘outbound’ merchant links, – I’m sinking my ship, so to speak. Many do this without knowing. I did it too. But, now I know better. And so do you. a. Once I learned of this, I had even more motivation to strip many of my Product Pages of merchants who were not performing in any case. You, however, will avoid this mistake entirely, by limiting merchants to no more than a few per page.

Baby step #10: Evaluate your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank’ Chart With your completed chart before you, – now take a huge sigh of relief! You have hit an important milestone. What you have now is an actual blueprint for each Product Page of your site. You’ve completed research that, – when implemented, – optimizes each page effectively and puts you miles ahead of the competition. But before you begin researching your topic and writing both text and HTML you should pause a bit to double check that you’re happy with your choices. When you are convinced that everything seems to line up nicely, then you are almost ready to begin writing. But first, …


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PPaarrtt 2 diiffyy yyoou 2– –M Mood urr tteem mp pllaattee Baby step #11: Modify the look of your template Normally, you would finish researching each of your Product Pages before modifying your template, – but for the sake of demonstration, – I’ll begin that process now in preparation for importing and optimizing my ‘barbecue grills’ Product Page.

Login to your ez-WebBuilder account Before you begin, you should locate the ez-WebBuilder’s Getting Started Tutorial located in the Help & Support link and print it in its entirety for your reference.

I would also recommend that you watch the video tutorial of the same information by locating the start button shown below on the same Help & Support link page.

NOTE: Once again, – I should point out that it is not within the scope of this manual to offer extensive training in the ez-WebBuilder, – although I CAN offer some initial guidelines to get you going. And although, the ez-WebBuilder is relatively easy-to-use, – you will need to reference the documentation, frequently asked questions, knowledgebase, and searchable database as questions arise. This information and the submission form to send a support request can be found on the Help & Support link shown below. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #5 - Building Winning Websites - Part 2 – Modify your template

PLEASE NOTE: My support staff is NOT qualified to answer ez-WebBuilder questions, please direct any such requests using the submission form mentioned above. Those with very limited knowledge of computers in general, may need to get some expert assistance from a local source. To begin you must first login to your ez-WebBuilder account.

At first it bears no relation to your topic In the screenshot below you can see how my template looks when I first log into my ez-WebBuilder account. What you see is the toolbar, – across the top of the page, – the ‘Home’ page of the site shown below the toolbar, – and the preliminary Navigation Bar to the right. As you can see in the screenshot that follows, there are 7 icons in the toolbar, – Edit Page, View Page, Add Page, Manage Pages, Design, Tools and Make Money.

At this point, we are only concerned with the Manage Pages and Design icons so we can begin the set-up process. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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To begin, I will first show you how easy it is to set-up and name the navigation bar buttons, – and also come up with a spider-friendly file name for each product page. I will also replace the ‘horse’ themed header graphic, with a ‘barbecue’ themed photo for the top of the page.

Baby step #12: Rename your navigation bar buttons Before replacing the sample text with my well-researched words about barbecues, grills and smokers – I first need to rename the navigation bar buttons for my site. In the design I have selected, there are three buttons listed vertically in the blue field at the right (see below), – although I will make some modifications to a few of the buttons.

Think through a logical menu choice. Below are the button names I have chosen, – based on my extensive keyword searches, – plus PageRank and Backward Link checks: 1. BBQs 2. Grills 3. Smokers 4. Portable © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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5. Accessories 6. Plans NOTE: Three things: 1. Spiders pay no attention to whether or not a word is capitalized in a graphic, – because graphics are ignored, – but for aesthetic reasons you should capitalize your navigation bar buttons. 2. However, even though the templates come with graphical navigation bar buttons, – and may be ignored by spiders, – you still need to name them properly. In this case you may have to shorten it a bit for aesthetic reasons. (more on this in Step 8) 3. In addition to my 6 Product Page buttons, – which I will place in the vertical field, – I will also dedicate the page footer (more on this in Step 8) to a longer text-based version, – which have been carefully chosen to generate traffic, – must not be altered along the bottom of each page.

Changing the buttons To begin you need to open the ‘Manage Pages’ view, as I’ve done in the screenshot that follows.

Follow along, – as I walk you through the process of changing the names of your navigation buttons and deleting unnecessary buttons. Even if you are very new, you should be able to accomplish this without much problem. As you can see in the Manages Pages view below, – there are currently three pages in your index: Home, Contact Us and Links.


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Please note, that the Home button should remain the same, unless you are up to reorganizing the internal links.

To rename these button icons, – click on the ‘Rename’ link and type the new name as you wish it to appear, and press ‘Save’.

I repeated the same procedure, for the Links page by renaming it Grills, – and now the Manage Pages view looks as follows.


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Next, I need to create four additional product pages to finish up the Navigation Bar Menu. I begin by clicking on the Add Page tab, and selecting the Web Page button as shown below.

I then select a name for this page, – in my case this would be the name Smokers. I then press the Add Page button.


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I repeat the process for each of the last three product pages until the Manage Pages view includes my Home page and all six Product Pages as shown here.

Now, when you click on the View Page icon in the toolbar, you will see the new Navigation Menu.


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I’ll show you how to add additional pages later in the training. For now, please stay with me.

Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of the process.

Baby step #13: Modify the header graphic The good news here: If you like the header graphic on your template, you can skip this step. If you do not like it, there’s some good news for you, too! You can see that I modified my header to better suit my site’s (and my visitor’s) specific needs. You can do this, as well. You can either: 1. Have Colin do it for you


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2. Do it yourself Really, both options are easy because Colin does a great job of walking you through the process step-by-step for changing the header and all other options, too. Continue to think about what your visitor’s want and do not skimp here. You need to portray a clean, crisp and highly professional image to your new audience. So, if you think Colin will do a better job than you, I urge you to rely on his expertise. Keep in mind that your site will be online for years. “All of our templates have header graphics that can be customized with another image and your company name or website address.” Colin Wiebe of Fast Creative explains. “…I can do it for you for a small fee, or you can do it yourself by following a video tutorial that I put together to walk-you-through the process.” 1. How to order a custom header graphic, or 2. How to modify an existing header graphic Once you’re done, you’ll have a header graphic for your new site that perfectly matches your chosen topic. Like I did for the BBQ site. I went with the option of hiring Colin to modify the stock header graphic by adding two photos and the address of the barbecue site; Gas-BBQ-Grills.net.

Doesn’t look much like a ‘horse’ site anymore, does it?

Now you have a BBQ grill site The screenshot below depicts the key elements of my new site: 1. My site name © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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2. My new header graphic 3. My navigation bar buttons What you see below is a very appealing look for my purposes.

In a few moments, – I will begin to organize and develop the content for the ‘barbecue’ site, – then upload and optimize it for you, – as a demonstration of what you will need to do with your own Home and Product Pages. But first, it’s time to modify your header graphic. Go to the link below to learn how. www.ez-webbuilder.com/host/page/1386.htm

Baby step #14 Pay for YOUR new site By now, if you haven’t done so already…

Enter your billing info, choose your charge period, and with you’re your credit card pay for your site.


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Baby step #15 Set-up your domain name settings In Step #4 – Ladies And Gentlemen – Choose Your Template, you had purchased the domain name for your new site. Next, you need to activate your domain name within the ez-WebBuilder system, by first clicking on the ‘Tools’ icon located in the toolbar.

Then, clicking on the Domain Name icon that appears in the menu.

And then the ‘Domain Setup’ tab.

And lastly, scroll down the page and the domain name for YOUR website in the field provided, and then press ‘Save’.


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NOTE: Now that you have update the settings for your domain name, it will take a day or two for your new site to appear on the Net. And when it does…

Go visit your site! Assuming you’ve uploaded your initial product page files, then you have entered the Internet age. Congratulations! Although your site is far from complete, – given that it only consists of a main page and 5-6 Product pages, – and none of the search engines or indexes know about it yet, – it can still make you money, (plus, you can show your mom) since it’s a fully functioning website. That’s because it DOES contain relevant content, plus some affiliated merchants. And visitors to your home page can click thru to your Product pages, – although your site map hasn’t been organized yet (Step-8). So take a deep breath. You’re in the home stretch.

Baby step #16: Complete the checklist for Step #5 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #6, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date.


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Baby step #1 – Pick your merchants Baby step #2 – Categorize your product pages Baby step #3 – Get your Google eyes Baby step #4 – Narrow down your keyword list Baby step #5 – Choose your Primary keywords Baby step #6 – Choose your Tier-1 secondary keywords Baby step #7 – Choose your Tier-2 secondary keywords Baby step #8 – Choose your Navigation Bar Button names Baby step #9 – Select a few merchants (advertisers) for each Product page Baby step #10 – Evaluate your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank’ chart Baby step #11 – Modify the look of your template Baby step #12 – Rename your navigation bar buttons Baby step #13 – Modify the header graphic Baby step #14 – Pay for YOUR new site Baby step #15 – Set-up your domain name settings Baby step #16 – Complete this checklist

Once you have… …a keyword-based navigation bar, - where each of your 5-6 buttons will link to a SINGLE Product page containing a compelling headline and 300+ words of text, - plus a strategy for adding NUMEROUS Article pages that each link back to the most appropriate Product page that have include your Primary and © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Secondary keywords strategically placed into each of your pages: Title tag Page description meta tags Keyword meta tags Alt tags Headline #1 (H1) Headline #2 (H2) PLUS, have completed the page optimization process by: Having strategically placed your Primary Keyword and your Tier-1 Secondary keywords throughout the text. Bolded and hyperlinked each pages primary keyword, - preferably to a related Product page, Article or merchant. Italicized each pages Primary keyword once somewhere near the top of the page, preferably in your headline or sub-headline. Randomly included your Tier-2 secondary keywords throughout the text. then… …you are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 6 #6 A Ad dd dK woorrd d FFooccu Keeyyw usseed dC ntteen ntt Coon Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… … you will understand how to develop your own content or hire a professional writer (on the cheap) to help - you will have content for Home and Product pages, one or two articles, contact us page information, links and know how to add a few photos (and where to find them), - plus you will learn my rules for keywords and keyword variations, how to upload all of this to your own pages, and how to optimize your pages for search engines.

How do I write content? After working with students of this business since 2001, I can safely say that THIS is the area where people have the most trouble. Content. “How do I write content?” they’d ask. This truly surprises me. I guess because communicating comes fairly easily to me. Often I’d hear from students saying they were paralyzed when attempting to write an article about – let’s say – kitchen knives for example. Where do I start? What do I say? © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Step #6 - Add Keyword Focused Content

My standard advice was to do a Google search for the term. And from there, thoroughly research the topic, taking notes into a text editor for editing. Simply develop your own information and ideas in your own style – don’t plagiarize. And be sure to check out your advertisers. They usually have tons of information. Yet, people still reported getting stuck. As a result, I am going to walk you through the process I followed to organize the content for the Gas-BBQGrills.net site, a process that I recommend that you follow, as well, with your site. And not too worry if this is starting to sound like another intense Step. In all actuality, – it will be very rewarding, – and one that you will grasp with surprising ease (yes even those of you who are convinced that you cannot write a complete sentence). Sure, complete sentences are important, but more than this, I have found that many of my students get hung-up on the fact that they believe that what they write will not be valuable to their visitors. On the contrary. And, I am going to prove it to you now, – so just stick with me here. For, if you can write an email, you can write content for your website. As you progress through this Step, you will see that I have divided it into two parts, in an effort to make this as easy as possible. These two parts include: 1. Content development 2. Uploading content to your site And for those who may be looking for a shortcut or a little assistance in this area, – I am also going to walk you through an online service that was brought to my attention by a dedicated student. Using this site, you can now have © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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paid professional writers bid for the chance to write content for your pages. And you’ll be surprised at the relatively low cost involved to write content for your site. You simply provide your writer with the parameters, (keyword density rules, length, topic, etc. as I outline in the audio report below) and THEY research and write your content for you. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of creating your content, it is worth pointing out that Web content comes in many forms. Sit back, because this is about to get fun!

Content is not just text anymore In the early days of the Internet, content was primarily limited to text on the page… and slow-loading photos. If you’ve been around and online for a while, – you may recall that it could take two to three minutes for a photo to open on the page. This timely delay was primarily due to slow dial-up connections to the Internet. Fast-forward to today. High-speed Internet connections have quickly become the norm – and because of this, in addition to text and photos, online audio and video can now also be delivered efficiently to visitors – making the delivery of content in a variety forms (which is what you do as an online publisher) all the more exciting (for you and for visitors to your site). In fact, there’s never been a more exciting (or rewarding) time to enter this growing arena – especially for those who are willing to delve into the previously un-chartered waters of photos, audio and video.


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And for those new to the Net, who may not be sure about adding text and photos to their sites yet, not to mention audio and video, not to worry. We’ll get through the text and photo portions first – which is simpler than you may think – and then we’ll look into the possibility of adding audio and/or video to your sites., so sit tight, this is about to get really fun! But right now, while we’re on this subject, I have to tell you about a recent experience I had that really piqued my interest in this area, – and further cemented the awesome advantages of delivering content to site visitors in different ways. I was attending Commission Junction University (CJU), a popular industry event, when the keynote speaker decided to have a little fun with the audience. He played a very short 2-minute video that demonstrated the power of a short video. Truly, he amazed me and everyone else in the crowd with a video demonstrating a Chinese shirt-folding technique. I encourage you to click on the link below to witness this for yourself. And I am sure you’ll be amazed at what you see. What’s more, you will be able to fully understand what’s going on and being presented (even though it’s in a different language). Click the link below (or paste it into a browser) to witness firsthand the tremendous impact a simple video can have on visitors to a website. http://web.mit.edu/wuster/www/media/fold.wmv (Link goes directly to a Windows Media Video File) Pretty neat, isn’t it? I would like to challenge you to start thinking ahead about adding this type of content to your site, – even if at this point you have absolutely no idea how to do this. If nothing comes to mind at first, not to worry!


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Just let your mind ponder the idea over the next weeks, and keep your eyes open for sites using audio and video, – an idea may present itself to you. And, my point in all of this is to simply demonstrate the exciting possibilities – and to get you thinking about content and the many forms in which it can be delivered. Remember: Content is no longer just text. It is also audio, video and photos. The bottom-line… It’s time to realize content is more than just text on a page, and by adding of a few photos, a short audio and maybe even a little video you maybe able to better communicate your ideas with your visitors. And communicating ideas is what publishers do.

Magazines, newspapers, radio and television Before we jump into a full discussion on organizing and creating content for your site, – by watching me organize the content for the BBQ site, – I want to point out that these sites (yours, mine, those we create) exist for one reason – and that is to earn revenue from advertising. Advertising revenue is the only reason your site exists. And you may be surprised to learn that the same goes for almost every television show, radio program, newspaper and magazine in the world. Each exists to earn income from advertisers. If you watch TLC (The Learning Channel), you may be familiar with the popular TV show, Overhaulin' (http://www.overhaulin.com/). It’s a show where Chip Foose, an automobile designer and his team conspire and steal a friend’s car only to spend the next 7-days completely overhauling the vehicle from scratch, while at the same time stringing the unsuspecting owner along through a series of pranks. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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It’s hilarious, and a great example of content developed for television, – that stemmed from someone’s’ idea for a show, – they of course earn their revenue from the sale of commercials and sponsorships to companies who sell related products. And the better the content (or programming as it’s referred to in radio and TV), the larger the audience; and the larger the audience, the more valuable the ad space. In the case of TV, it’s about viewers. In the case of newspapers or magazines, it’s about circulation and its readership. And, in the case of our websites, it’s ALL about visitors, – and the better job we do creating content, – that stem from our ideas, – the more revenue we can earn from advertisers.


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PPaarrtt 1 ntteen ntt d 1– –C Coon pm meen ntt deevveelloop In the wave one era, when I created my first series of websites, I focused most of my time and efforts on writing for the search engines (and less time on the visitor). At the time, most sites found at the top of the search engines used a higher density of keywords than sites that were more naturally written. Today, and over the last couple of years, there have been massive improvements made to search engines. Search engines now strongly favor natural writing over pages written primarily for the search engines. You see, today’s search engines are savvy. They understand words. They closely examine sentence structure and even assess the relationship between words on a page – favoring content that is written well and filtering out junk. As an online publisher, it’s important to focus intently on the quality of the content, – and this first begins with understanding your visitor.

Getting to know your visitor In my telecom days, – when I was developing a manual for the Customer Service department, – I got into a memorable discussion with Charles Johnston, on the whole topic of “customer service”. I was working diligently on a manual that instructed the customer service reps on what to say and what to do when communicating with customers, when Charles pointed out that EVERYTHING we do is about customer service – every invoice, every contact, every technical issue, every phone call, every brochure, every website…as he put it, “It’s all customer service”.


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Step #6 - Add Keyword Focused Content - Part 1 – Content development

I had to concede that he was right! And, to draw a parallel, when it comes to our websites, “It’s all about serving the visitor!” So, unlike days past, today’s websites are about serving the visitor, first; search engines, second. Every page created needs to focus on serving the needs of the visitor. Take just a minute now to think about the websites you have visited that did not read or flow well. Perhaps the information wasn’t arranged logically or you couldn’t locate a phone number when you needed to call Customer Service. Or, worse yet, the information you were looking for was poorly written, buried somewhere in the site or perhaps not even there at all. Frustrating, wasn’t it? And, chances are you left the site unsatisfied and went to another site to find what you were looking for. In the beginning, I was guilty of building sites like this and have taken the last year or so to really hone-in on my visitor. I have worked hard to put myself in the shoes of my visitor and to see things from their perspective. And, when I started doing this, my work became easier and more profitable! I encourage you to put yourself in the place of your visitor – help them find what they are looking for and you too, will enjoy online publishing success!


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Keyword phrases provide clues Many visitors will find your site by entering a keyword phrase (I.e. portable charcoal grills) at one of the major search engines. These keyword phrases, can be looked at by us… as a quasi-type of question, – giving us clues as to what is in the mind of the visitor. For example, someone who enters the keyword phrase “portable charcoal grills” is obviously interested in a grill that uses charcoal for fuel that is portable. I might also assume they love the charbroiled taste that “charcoal” brings (or are restricted from using gas), and they may want a “portable” unit that can be easily transported to a local park, beach or campground. Look at a cross-section of my BBQ keyword list below. As you will see, these are really clues to what exactly my visitors are looking for.

Think about what each person may have wanted to know when they typed in the keyword phrases. Get into your visitor’s head. Picture what you think may be going on here. For instance, take the keywords “gas barbecue grill.” The person typing this into his search box is probably sitting at his computer picturing himself and his family in his backyard – with his shiny, new, gas barbecue, steaks sizzling. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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The table has been set and he and his wife are enjoying a bottle of wine with the neighbors, – as the kids play together in the warm sun. The dog is running around and everyone is anxious to dig into the scrumptious meal that, by this time, smells oh so good! Or, consider the keywords “backyard bbq plans.” This guy is probably a bit of a handyman and wants to build his own custom backyard barbecue so he can entertain guests, family, etc. Obviously, he enjoys building things and probably takes great pride in his work. It is likely that he already has an idea in his mind about what he wants to build, but needs a bit of help here and is looking some plans he can compare and use to design and build his dream backyard barbecue. Once you begin to think like this, it is easy to see how the keywords typed in by people actually provide clues and how your job (and mine) is to provide answers and solutions. Now, it’s time to do a little research.

Baby step #1: It’s time to research the merchants In my case, as I work to build my BBQ site, I visit one of my selected merchants, thegrillsuperstore.com (see below) for a little guidance. Now, grab your notepad. We’re going to put our thinking caps on and come up with some great ideas for site content. My site, Gas-BBQ-Grills.net – is still very vague. I can take it infinite directions, – so let’s do some exploring.


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I spend a good deal of time on the site getting my head around the products, – the way the merchant organized the site, and what information they are providing to the visitors. I can quickly see that they have categorized the products by the different types of ‘Grills’ (I.e. Gas Grills, Charcoal Grills, Barbecue Smokers, Sauces, Tools, and Accessories). I can also see in the screen shot above the visitors can search for BBQs, grills and smokers by ‘Price Range’. By scrolling down the page, I can also see a list of ‘Helpful Information’ that the merchant is providing to the visitor. A little further down the page I come across a list of ‘Our House Favorites’ and the ‘Top Selling Grilling Items’, which gives me good insight to what’s selling on the site.


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This information is invaluable, – and begins to give me some ideas for how to begin to tailor my content so that it appeals to my visitors, – which remains my top goal. I can also see that this merchant has done to great job at building site credibility with the visitors, – by pointing out to the visitor that they are a member of the Better Business Bureau Online (BBB Online), and displaying their privacy and secure site guarantees.

In addition, they provide helpful information on order tracking, shipping, delivery, no-hassle return guarantee and other important information that I can refer to in my content. But don’t stop here! I would also suggest giving the affiliate manager for the merchant a call to get their feedback and input. They are © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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usually a wealth of information and can some times even provide you with free content for your site. This is an important step and I encourage you not to skip it – pick up the phone and make the call. Even if you feel a little phone shy, JUST DO IT! Most affiliate managers spend their time trying to get the attention of their affiliates. Most only receive a few calls a week at best. Give them a call, – let them know you’re considering developing a site around their topic and that you have a few questions. As you will see below, the information they can provide to you is invaluable when it comes to identifying, organizing and arranging the content for your site.

I didn’t know that… Here’s what I learned from a 15-minute conversation I had with Nate Eslinger, Affiliate Manager for the Grill Superstore: Q. Do you provide any content for affiliates? A. We don’t yet; however, it is something that’s on our list and would like to do so in the future. Q. What’s selling well? A. I can actually pull up a list for you. I’ll email it to you. (30 minutes later I received a spreadsheet from Nate listing the top 26 best selling products.) Each product listing included the following: Product Name: Price: Product Category:

Char Griller Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill $199.87 Home > Barbecue Smokers > Wood Smokers

Product URL:

http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/cart/shopper.cfm?acti on=view&key=CG010&source=affiliates

Product Description:

The Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill will allow you to entertain your guests with ease and is definitely a unit that you want to consider. The sturdy construction of the Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill is designed with heavy steel for years of worry free use. The Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill also includes a Side Fire Box that


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measures 14W x 17.5D inches. This adaptable accessory is a great way to cook with indirect heat to smoke your favorite meats. It also adds more versatility to your grill by allowing wood and charcoal to be place in the side box for easy refueling and clean-up. The Smokin' Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill includes durable cast iron grates that are designed to retain heat for more even cooking on this large 830 square inch grilling surface that measures 29.5W x 19.75D inches. The cooking temperature can be easily regulated throughout the cooking surface with an adjustable grate. This grate is designed with two wire hangers that attaches directly to the ash pan which holds the charcoal briquettes. By simply moving the ashtray upward it will allow more direct heat. Moving the ash try downwards will restrict the amount of heat to the grilling surface for a slow cooked meal. A thermometer is built in to the grill hood to display the exact cooking temperature. Actual product may vary slightly to photo. Click Here For Hints on Smoking Meats & Poultry

Q. What is the best selling season for the products? A. The peak season for grill sales begins in March, peaks in mid-May and then runs through July. It then tapers off again and spikes up just before Christmas. Turkey fryers do real well around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Q. Can you share the site of one of your top affiliates with me? A. Sure, the site is for the television show Barbecue America (www.barbecueamerica.com). Nice site. Q. Do the sauces, tools and accessories sell well? A. I am not sure. I’ll get back to you on that. Q. Can I land visitors on specific pages on your site? A. Yes, you bet. Q. What percentage of people order by phone? A. 10-15% of our sales are phone orders. At this time we have no way of tracking affiliate ID’s over the phone. Q. Anything else I should know? A. I recommended that you attempt to synchronize the specific products to specific information on your site.


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As you can see the call was very worthwhile, I learned a bunch, and I can see that Nate is there to help me with anything I may need.

Baby step #2: It’s time to make some observations With my file folder in hand, that includes my keyword list, the notes from my discussion with the affiliate manager, the information I collected during my evaluation of the Grill Superstore site, and any other information I collected, I am ready to move forward. I start this process of organizing my information so I can begin to logically arrange the site by reviewing everything and making some important observations: 1. The site offers several tips to help visitors select an outdoor barbeque grill that best suits their needs. This information gives me great insight into the topic and: a. Charcoal or Gas Grills? b. Propane vs. Natural Gas Grills? c. What grills features are important to you? d. Where are you going to put your grill? e. Price? 2. In addition to selling BBQ’s, grills, and smokers, the site also sells sauces and cookware, grill tools, and a line of accessories. 3. I have noticed the site features testimonials from satisfied customers that may make a nice edition to my site. 4. A selection of ‘Our House Favorites’ is clearly displayed on each page of the site. 5. Each of ‘Top Selling Grill Items’ are probably good candidates for an individual product review. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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6. The site does a beautiful job of displaying each of the products, and offers suggestions during the shopping process. 7. I love the "Is This a Gift?" feature: Don't worry about your gift arriving late or showing-up empty-handed. Print or email a Virtual Gift with a personalized message, picture and description of the gift you purchase today! 8. I have also noticed that the site is an absolute treasure trove of keywords that should be added to my keyword list. 9. I can also see that the Grill Superstore does an amazing job of portraying confidence (BBB Online, Secure Site, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, etc.) to online shoppers who maybe a little nervous about using their credit cards. In all, I am very impressed with this site (and topic).

Baby step #3: What’s it going to be? Remember earlier that I determined the topics for each of my product pages for the site? Now, let’s decide exactly what we plan to “say” on the home and product pages, working on our content.


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As for me, I usually do this with pen and paper in hand – you may want to grab these, too. Now, there is no exact science for this step, no perfect formulation – in fact, I usually make adjustments and little tweaks here and there, – as I get further into each topic and the information. I plan to hire a writer (as outlined in the Hiring Authors report, which I discuss in detail later on); however, I am still going to organize the information so that you can see exactly how to do this yourself. What I have found to work best for me, – is to grab my Home & Product Page Optimization Charts (see screenshot below) – one for each of the product pages, and a blank one for the home page.

Grab yours now, so you can refer to them as we move forward here.


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Next, I open up a text editor (i.e. Microsoft Notepad) and start to organize all of my notes – I really just write an overview for each of the pages. Keep in mind that this works for me. You may find a way that works better for you, but until you do, you can use my method, as there is no correct way of doing this – no proven method to the madness, if you will. Perhaps the only rule of thumb here: KEEP YOUR VISITOR FIRST AND FOREMOST IN YOUR MIND and ON YOUR SITE.

I make a few decisions On the home and product pages of the barbecue site, I am planning to “talk” about the atmosphere of a backyard barbecue – good friends, family, mouthwatering food, healthy cooking, outdoors, fresh air, etc. I also want to paint the vision of a new barbecue in their back yard, – really stimulating their interest. And I am going to talk about the advantages of shopping online, the benefits of having the new barbecue show-up right at their front door, and how they won’t have to search the stores for just the right barbecue and then load it in the car, only to have to unload it again once home. I would also like to talk about the selection available at the Grill Superstore and how it far surpasses the number of units available at any local store. And, I will tell them how they can compare the latest and greatest models all at once, and from the comfort of their home. In other words, I plan to really sell the concept of purchasing a grill or smoker on the Internet vs. buying one in the store. I’d also like to address those would-be shoppers who maybe a little nervous about using their credit card online, – so I’ll make sure they know about the site’s safe and


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secure shopping, – and the 100% satisfaction guarantee, no-hassle return guarantee.

Organizing the writing process Regardless if I am writing the content myself, or having a freelance writer tackle the project, I still find it very helpful to organize my thoughts on paper. It’s ok to struggle with this; it will get easier as you dig in, and you can make adjustments to the text as you go. If you’re a little nervous about writing the content yourself, it may be helpful to keep in mind that developing content for these pages is very similar to writing a book report. I have three teens in the house and watch them do these all the time. At first they can be overwhelmed, but once they dig in, before they know it, it’s done. This is pretty much the same thing. Only for this book type report, you get paid. Keep in mind that a site that even makes $500-$1000 a month, equates to $18,000-$36,000 over a three year period. Not bad for a book report. Go ahead and grab your file folder – the one that contains all of your research on the topic, and head out for your favorite Starbuck’s coffee (or Tim Horton’s if you’re in Canada ;)). It’s study time. Before you can start the writing process (or hire a freelance writer), YOU need to understand the topic. To do this, sit down and begin to logically organize all your notes and information. This will take you some time, but will prove to be invaluable. And, you may need to do some more research. You really must know the topic before starting the writing process.


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In fact, the quality of your content will be in direct proportion to the time you put into your research. As you sip your coffee and organize your thoughts, you may want to have a look back to Step #3 – Keywords Are the Building Blocks. The information in the Step will help you research what’s important to your visitor. And, don’t forget to refer to your Home & Product Page Optimization Charts, so you know which Primary, tier-1, tier-2, and which keyword variations you have assigned to home and product pages. As I go through my notes, evaluate my keyword list, study the merchant site, and generally begin to get my head around the topic, I note down any ideas for content as they come to mind. In just a few minutes, I have come up with a rough list: 1. A comparison between a charcoal and gas grills 2. A look at the differences between using propane and natural gas? 3. Tips on selecting a grill for your lifestyle 4. A review of the top selling grills by fuel type 5. Barbecue safety 6. How to winterize barbecue 7. Planning a backyard barbecue 8. Camping with a portable grill 9. How to shop online for a charcoal or gas barbecue grill 10. Cleaning your stainless steel barbecue 11. Barbecue checklist 12. What is a barbecue smoker? 13. Building a backyard barbecue 14. Cleaning your barbecue for summer fun 15. Learning to barbecue 16. Cleaning the grill 17. Outdoor cooking lessons 18. Barbecue tools and accessories 19. Buying a BBQ smoker


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Baby step #4: Use a ‘work order’ to organize your thoughts The idea of the work order is a throw back to my construction days. Every time I wanted to hire a plumber, carpenter or any type of tradesman, I would prepare a work order for them that clearly outlined the scope of the work and my expectations. I found this process still works well for me, whether I am planning on writing the content myself, or hiring a writer, – because it forces me to carefully organize my thoughts and ideas and really think-through exactly what I want for the site. As I develop the work order, I also make note of any ideas that come to mind for additional content that I may want to add to the site. Sample Work Order Home Page Notes to Writer: (600+ words) I would like the home page to summarize what the visitor will find on this site. I would like a powerful and compelling headline that will draw the visitor into the site. I would like this page (and the general feel for the overall site) to “talk” about the atmosphere of a backyard barbecue – good friends, family, mouthwatering food, healthy cooking, outdoors and fresh air painting for the reader the vision of having a new barbecue in their back yard. I would also like you to discuss the advantages of shopping online, the benefits of having the new barbecue show-up right at their front door, and how they won’t have to search the stores for the right barbecue and then load it in the car, only to have to unload it again once home. I would also like to talk about the selection available at TheGrillSuperStore and how it © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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far surpasses the number of units available at any local store. And, how they can compare the latest and greatest models all at once, and from the comfort of their home. In other words, I would like you to sell the concept of purchasing a grill or smoker on the Internet vs. buying one in the store. I’d also like you to address those would-be shoppers who maybe a little nervous about using their credit card online, – so I’ll make sure they know about the site’s safe and secure shopping, – and the 100% satisfaction guarantee, no-hassle return guarantee. I would like you to probe the reader to see if they are you looking for a Charcoal or Gas grill. Ask them if they have any features (cooking surface size, grates, burners, rotisserie, back or side burners, etc.) that are important to them? Ask them where are they planning to place the grill (deck, patio, or camping, beach - portable)? Ask them if they have a budget in mind with the following price ranges (Under $50, $50-$200, $200-$500, $500-$1000, $1000 and up)? IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep in mind as well, that not all of the information provided above, does NOT need to be fully covered on the home page, but rather it can be included and addressed on the home and product pages as would be appropriate during the normal course of writing. Also, during the normal course of writing the article, please get into the habit of referencing a few other pages on the site, by its Primary keyword where appropriate. This will help the visitor navigate to other pages, and will provide me with an opportunity to link to the pages using the appropriate keywords. For example, if you mention the keyword; barbecue accessories on the home page, I can hyperlink those keywords (I.e. barbecue accessories) directly to the accessories page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Primary Keyword: gas BBQ grills Tier-1 Keyword: charcoal barbecue grill Keyword Variations: gas, charcoal, barbecue, barbecues, BBQ, BBQs, grill, grills, grilling Tier-2 Keywords: barbecue accessories, barbecue grills, best gas grills, compare, designs, equipment, gifts, great, grill ware, heavy duty, high quality grills, manufacturer, natural gas, order online, outdoor cooking, outdoors, portable barbecues, propane, reviews, rotisserie, sale, sets, barbecue smokers, stainless steel barbecues, supplies I would Like The Following Concepts Developed Into A Powerful Headline: ‘Shopping online, charcoal or gas barbecue grill, save, better selection, to your door delivery’, family, food and fun.’ Additional Research: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/ Product Page #1 (BBQ) Primary Keyword: gas barbecue grills Tier-1 Keyword: barbecue grill Variations: gas, propane, natural gas, barbecues, barbecue, grill, grills, grilled Tier-2 Keywords: accessories, barbecue, barbecues, BBQ, best gas grills, camp grills, charbroil gas grills, charcoal, compare, cover, covers, designs, equipment, gas, gifts, great, grillware, heavy duty, high quality grills, kits, manufacturer, natural gas, online, order, outdoor cooking, outdoors, portable barbecues, propane grills, reviews, rotisserie, sale, sets, smoker, smokers, stainless steel, supplies, supply, tools, utensils Notes to Writer: In 300+ words, and in the spirit of the backyard barbecue theme, I would like you to expand the information on © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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the most popular features and join in on the gas vs. charcoal debate. Please be creative. Keep it light Research: I would like you to recommend TheGrillSuperStore.com who offers a large selection of gas and charcoal barbecues. Please refer to a couple of them on the link below, so that I can link directly to them from this article. At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com. Charcoal Barbecue Grills: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/gasgrills/shop.cfm?N=122+124 Product Page #2 (Grills) Primary Keyword: barbeque grills Tier-1 Keyword: outdoor grills Variations: barbeque, barbeques, BBQ, BBQs, grills, grill, grilling Tier-2 Keywords: outdoor grill, heavy duty grills, camping, beach, hiking Notes to Writer: In 300+ words, and in the spirit of the backyard barbecue theme, I would like you to discuss the two fuel choices (propane vs. natural gas), and will elaborate on the important features. At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com. Research: I would like you to recommend TheGrillSuperStore.com who offers a large selection of gas and charcoal barbecues. Please refer to a couple of them on the link below, so that I can link directly to them from this article. At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com.


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Gas Barbecue Grills: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/gasgrills/shop.cfm?N=122+124 Charcoal Barbecue Grills: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/charcoalgrills/shop.cfm?N=122+125 Product Page #3 (Smokers) Primary Keyword: barbecue smokers Tier-1 Keyword: BBQ smoker grills Variations: barbecue, BBQ, smokers, smoker, grills, grill Tier-2 Keywords: bbq smoker, BBQ smokers, outdoor barbecue smokers, buying, charcoal, designs, new, cooking outdoors, pit, site Notes to Writer: In 300+ words, and in the spirit of the backyard barbecue theme, I would like to elaborate on the differences between a grill and a smoke. Research: I would like you to recommend TheGrillSuperStore.com who offers a large selection of barbecue smokers. Please refer to a couple of them on the link below, so that I can link directly to them from this article. At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com. Barbecue Smokers: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/barbecuesmokers/shop.cfm?N=122+126 Product Page #4 (Portable) Primary Keyword: portable gas barbecues Tier-1 Keyword: portable gas grills Variations: portable, transportable, easily carried, cartable, gas, propane, barbecues, barbecue, grills, grill Tier-2 Keywords: portable gas grill, portable gas barbecue, portable charcoal grills, © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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compact, convenient, easily carried, handy, light, lightweight Notes to Writer: In 300+ words, I will talk about the various options for those looking for a portable BBQ and point out why they are so popular for tailgating parties, camping, picnics, etc.). At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com. Research: I would like you to recommend TheGrillSuperStore.com who offers a large selection of portable units. Please refer to a few of the portable barbecues available on the link below, so that I can link directly to them from this article. Portable Barbecues: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/portablegrills/shop.cfm?N=122+691 Product Page #5 (Accessories) Primary Keyword: barbecue accessories Tier-1 Keyword: bbq grill tools Variations: barbecues, barbecue, BBQs, BBQ, accessories, accessory, grills, grill, tools, kits, sets Tier-2 Keywords: covers, sauces, cookware, thermometer, grate, warming rack, cookbooks, kebab sets, outdoor fan, grill set, kit, BBQ tool set, supplies, utensils Notes to Writer: In 300+ words, I would like you to discuss the various types of BBQ tools, sauces and accessories that can make barbecuing even more enjoyable. Have fun with this page. Again, in doing so, please paint the picture of backyard fun. At the bottom of the article, I would like a good call to action for the visitor to visit TheGrillSuperStore.com. Research: I would like you to recommend TheGrillSuperStore.com who offers a large selection of accessories. Please refer to a © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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few of the various accessories available on the links below, so that I can link directly to them from this article. Barbecue Accessories: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/grillaccessories/shop.cfm?N=122+128 Barbecue Tools: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/grilltools/shop.cfm?N=122+690 Barbecue Sauces & Cookware: http://www.thegrillsuperstore.com/sauces-&cookware/shop.cfm?N=122+689 Product Page #6 (Plans) Headline Ideas: How to build a barbecue, backyard, plans Primary Keyword: barbecue plans Tier-1 Keyword: barbecue grill plans Variations: barbecue, barbecues, BBQ, BBQs, plans, plan, grills, grill Tier-2 Keywords: plans to build a brick barbecue, barbecue pit plans, stone brick barbecue plans, plans build brick barbecue, build barbecue, bbq smoker plans, bbq plans, bbq grill plans, building, free, how, outdoor, pits Notes to Writer: I would like this page to be written for the visitor, in approximately 300+ words, who maybe looking for plans, drawings, and blueprints so they can build a barbecue in their backyard. I would like you to talk directly to this guy (and gal) who is probably a bit of a handyman and wants to build his own custom backyard barbecue so he can entertain guests, family, etc. Obviously, he enjoys building things and probably takes great pride in his work. It is likely that he already has an idea in his mind about what he wants to build, but needs a bit of help here and is looking some plans he can compare and


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use to design and build his dream backyard barbecue. Research: I would like you to research the various types of backyard barbecues (I.e. brick, island, pits), discuss the level of skill needed and anything else would be barbecue builders may wan to consider prior to beginning the project. You may also want to reference this site and provide a link to this page: http://doityourself.com/brick/buildbrickbarbe cue.htm Important Clarification: If you recall, tier-2 secondary keywords are simply a group of 15-20 additional keywords, which are kept in mind as you write your content. No attempt is made to fully or partially optimize them for the particular page you are writing. They are used editorially and included in the text, as they would naturally appear, instead of forcing their repeated occurrence, as you do when fully or partially optimizing the Primary and Tier-1 secondary keywords. If spiders detect them, – then all the better. In Step #5, I discussed that in addition to carefully selecting tier-2 secondary keywords for each of the pages above from my keyword list, I also include any other keywords that I located during my research period. I want to point this out to encourage you to search out additional keywords that you can add to each page that you create. These additional tier-2 secondary keywords may include, but are not limited to, product model numbers, sizes, colors, shapes, textures, geographical locations, special features (I.e. lightweight, portable) etc.


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Keyword density I am going to share with you the keyword density rules that I have been using since the end of 2004 with much success. As you will see, they are worth learning. These rules now are very conducive to a natural writing style – which is what you are striving for. At first glance, these density rules may look complicated; however, once understood they are very easy-to-follow. Below are the rules followed by clarifications and advice: a. Optimize each page for keyword density by including your Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords: Primary Keyword: Once in your headline. Once in the first paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page. Tier-1 Secondary Keywords: Once in the first or second paragraph. Used nowhere else on the page. Use Keyword Variations: These are individual words that are based on your Primary & Secondary keywords. (further explanation and examples to follow) They should be used repeatedly in the following density. i. 300 word article: no less than 24 times – no more than 36 times ii. Extrapolate the above ratio on longer articles © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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b. Randomly included your Tier-2 Secondary keywords throughout the text in no particular density, but added only as they would naturally appear editorially. Clarifications & Advice: 1) Keyword Variations Explained: Varying up your keywords is important because Google now uses “stemming” technology, as they explain at: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html (excerpt below) Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for "pet lemur dietary needs", Google will also search for "pet lemur diet needs", and other related variations of your terms.

I’ll admit choosing “variations” can be a challenge at times because in certain instances it’s not always obvious what variations to use. I’ll help you a bit here by revealing some rules I use to develop a short list of variations for my Primary & Tier-1 Secondary keywords. But, essentially you are on your own with this, for very often, two people will come up with TWO different – but perfectly applicable – sets of variations. It’s all a matter of proficiency with English, as well as a subjective feel for your industry. So PLEASE don’t email with questions about HOW to choose variations for your own keywords. But, I think I can point you in the right direction by first providing a definition of stem: noun – language, the base of a word, to which affixes are added. (Also called a “theme”). Or, Intransitive Verb: to derive from. Of course “dictionary” definitions only go so far.


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So please consider using the three main ways I come up with variations that stem from both my Primary Keyword and Tier-1 Secondary Keyword: 1. Use the single words of Keyword phrases as variations of the longer phrase. Examples Below. 2. Think of words that are similar. 3. Use singular versions of plurals and vice versa. Example: Let’s say you’re building a page for a barbeque grill site. You’ve identified your keywords as follows: 1. Primary Keyword: gas barbecue grills 2. Tier-1 Secondary Keyword: gas barbecue grill (no “s”) Can you see how the single words that make up the phrase “gas barbecue grills” provide three variations? •

gas

•

barbecues

•

grills

Can you also see how to take the same phrase and come up with similar words, such as? •

propane (a type of gas)

•

bbq

•

grill (and grilled, grilling)

Now, can you see how I can add other words to my list of variations by using the singular of “barbecues”? •

barbecue

That’s the general idea. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Recap: So now – before writing the content – you build a keyword list for each page – divided into four types of keywords – just like I did in the Sample Work Order a few pages back. 1. Primary Keyword 2. Tier-1 Secondary Keywords 3. Tier-2 Secondary Keywords 4. Keyword Variations And, as the manual says, – you STILL use your Tier-2 Secondary Keywords editorially, with no attempt to optimize them. They are simply on your list – ready to be used as you – or your writer – would naturally use them in writing about any particular topic. What follows is an example of an article. It’s a graphical example of how to use your chosen keywords in a typical article. You’ll first see my keyword list. I’ve color coded them so you can easily find them in my article below. Notice I had a list of 9 variations, but didn’t use all of them. And if you count them you’ll see how they fall into my suggested densities. In addition to the 5 Tier-2 Secondary Keywords I selected from my keyword report, I have also identified 7 additional Tier-2 keywords on the merchant site; the Grill Superstore that I would also like included. Primary Keyword: gas barbecue grills Tier-1 Secondary Keyword: gas barbecue grill Keyword Variations: gas, propane, barbecue, barbecues, BBQ, BBQs, grill, grills, grilling, smoker Tier-2 Secondary Keywords: gas grills, BBQ smokers, portable gas grills, accessories, BBQ plans, outdoor cooking, © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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gift, gift certificate, great prices, best selling, Weber, Coleman

A Gas Barbecue Grill Quickly Becomes the Backyard Centerpiece for Good Times and Great Meals with Family and Friends Nothing heats up a summer like gas barbecue grills. It’s the true centerpiece of outdoor fun and just beckons for family and friends to gather around for shared times and fire-cooked foods that create warm memories that are sure to last a lifetime. And, over the last few years, as outdoor cooking shows have taken off and the gas barbecue grill has evolved to a truly specialty outdoor appliance, more families and friends are relying on their grills to set the tone for outdoor fun, making the right BBQ – one you will use for years to come with great pride (and great meals), a very important find. Lucky for you, everything you need to find the perfect grill for your family is here, in one convenient place. For once upon a time, we spent days driving around looking at Weber grills, Coleman grills – all of the top-notch BBQs. And, like you, we were overwhelmed and confused. Worry not! We now do all the work for you. All you have to do is decide what BBQs best suits your needs and, given that we offer the best selling grills at really great prices, sit back, do a bit of clicking and you’re done. Before you know it, you’ll have your own steaks sizzling on the grill, neighbors dropping by to join in the fun as you and your family enjoys the great outdoors together.

With Just A Few Clicks, You Will Be Ready To Fire-up The Good Times! So, whether you’re in the market for a gas barbecue for the back deck or patio, or perhaps you are looking for BBQ smoker, portable gas grill, BBQ plans for the do-it-yourselfer or just some nifty accessories, the Internet is a great place to find what you're looking for! And, whether you want to buy a grill for yourself or as a gift for a loved one (they make great wedding gifts for friends and wonderful birthday/holiday gifts for loved ones), you are sure to find everything you need right here, including gift certificates so your impressed recipient can choose their very own BBQ. You should know that the Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill is a real favorite. It’s a bestseller that everyone seems to like, especially those looking for years of use without worry. This popular barbecue is made with heavy steel and includes a side fire


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box that allows for cooking with indirect heat, producing meat so juicy and tender it just falls off the bone. Not to mention, the authentic smoked taste. Yes, this one is a real crown-pleaser! The Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill comes complete with a built-in thermometer so you can cook like a real pro! It is unbelievably versatile – boasting the ability to grill by allowing wood or charcoal, which is simply placed in the grill’s side box. It’s cast iron grates retain more heat and allow for more even cooking. The bottom-line: Anything you cook on this BBQ is sure to come out mouth-watering good and is going to make you look like you deserve your own outdoor cooking show! But, only you will know the truth – that the Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill did all hard the work for you, eliminating the frustrating guessing that often comes with cooking outdoors and providing you, your family and friends (and everyone’s taste buds) with a meal that won’t soon be forgotten! Click Here For More on Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill!

The first thing to notice about the above article is the natural writing style. This is absolutely key! The second thing to notice is that I didn’t precisely follow the rules. Overall, the keyword density is a little low, and I opted to use a singular version of the Primary keyword in the headline for better readability. This is perfectly fine. As you see, there is no reason to force the use of the keywords (like we did in the past). Instead, with a touch of creativity and a smidgen of time (the article above took less than 30 minutes to write) – you can craft a short and interesting article, – one that continuously helps to sell your products – simply peppering in the keywords as you go! It’s true. Just a dash here and a dash there and before you know it, your keywords are sprinkled naturally throughout. Remember: You are writing for your visitor. And, when in doubt – in those rare cases when it seems difficult to work keywords into a page – I always opt for natural writing, – keeping my focus on the visitor and answering their questions. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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And, if you’re still not convinced you can do this (but I KNOW you can), I have a great resource for you so just read on…

Elance.com solves writers block! Through an online service that was brought to my attention by a student, you can now have paid professionals – writers – bid for the chance to write each page of your content. And you’ll be surprised at the relatively low cost involved to write these short and simple articles. You simply provide your writer with the parameters, (keyword density rules, length, topic, etc. as outlined in my Hiring Authors report below) and THEY research and write your article for you. You see, – whether you realized it or not when you bought this manual – you’ve entered into the publishing business. Your website is a publication – a web-based publication about something important to readers. And YOU, my friend are a publisher! So do what publishers do – hire authors. I cover the whole story of how I first hired local writers – then progressed to using elance.com – in my Hiring Authors audio report. In this newly refreshed report, I include a “lively” 30minute discussion between Kellie Fowler, a freelance writer I discovered at Elance, and myself - where we discuss the finer points of hiring (and managing) freelance writers. In addition, the report includes a 37-page downloadable ebook that includes a printable transcript of the audio, sample work order, and my instructions to the writer including quality expectations, keyword density, etc. Never again, will you sit and wonder what to write about.


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This report is free – but it’s only available to buzz subscribers – my twice-a-month audio newsletter – who also own this manual. If you’re a Book n’ Buzz subscriber already you can request this report here: [email protected]

Recommended study time; 60-minutes.


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PPaarrtt 2 pllooaad d yyoou 2– –U Up urr ccoon ntteen ntt Baby step #5: Import your content I suggest that either you write your content into Microsoft Notepad, – or simply organize your own files according to a system that works best for you, – rather than working directly in the ez-WebBuilder. Once you’re satisfied with it, – you can easily ‘cut and paste’ it later into your template as I have done below. Some guidelines: 1. Don’t limit yourself to 250-300 words (if an article needs to be longer to properly cover off the topic, then so be it, – as was the case in the example that follows) 2. Stick to Arial or Verdana fonts for the best readability 3. Use the same font throughout 4. 10pt. or 12pt. is best for the Net 5. Headlines are typically 14 pt. or 18pt. (bolded) 6. Sub-headlines are typically 12pt. or 14pt. (bolded) 7. Use black ink (on a light background) 8. Never bold your entire text block 9. Italicize or bold only the keywords according to the optimization process. Underline for emphasis if needed In the following example of text, – as it appears in my Notepad document, – you will note the primary keyword in the upper left, – bolded in 8pt. This later becomes hyperlinked as part of the optimization rules.


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Step #6 - Add Keyword Focused Content - Part 2 – Upload your content

Gas Barbecue Grills

A Gas Barbecue Grill Quickly Becomes the Backyard Centerpiece for Good Times and Great Meals with Family and Friends Nothing heats up a summer like gas barbecue grills. It’s the true centerpiece of outdoor fun and just beckons for family and friends to gather around for shared times and fire-cooked foods that create warm memories that are sure to last a lifetime. And, over the last few years, as outdoor cooking shows have taken off and the gas barbecue grill has evolved to a truly specialty outdoor appliance, more families and friends are relying on their grills to set the tone for outdoor fun, making the right BBQ – one you will use for years to come with great pride (and great meals), a very important find. Lucky for you, everything you need to find the perfect grill for your family is here, in one convenient place. For once upon a time, we spent days driving around looking at Weber grills, Coleman grills – all of the top-notch BBQs. And, like you, we were overwhelmed and confused. Worry not! We now do all the work for you. All you have to do is decide what BBQs best suits your needs and, given that we offer the best selling grills at really great prices, sit back, do a bit of clicking and you’re done. Before you know it, you’ll have your own steaks sizzling on the grill, neighbors dropping by to join in the fun as you and your family enjoys the great outdoors together.

With Just a Few Clicks, You Will Be Ready To Fire-Up the Good Times! So, whether you’re in the market for a best-selling gas barbecue or perhaps a real patio classic, or perhaps you are looking for BBQ smokers, portable gas grills, BBQ plans or just some nifty accessories, you’re sure to find it all right here! And, whether you want to buy a grill for yourself or as a gift for a loved one (they make great wedding gifts for friends and wonderful birthday/holiday gifts for loved ones), you are sure to find everything you need right here, including gift certificates so your impressed recipient can choose their very own BBQ. You should know that the Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill is a real favorite. It’s a bestseller that everyone seems to like, especially those looking for years of use without worry. The Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill is made with heavy steel and includes a Side Fire Box that allows for cooking with indirect heat, producing meat so juicy and tender it just falls off the bone. Not to mention, the authentic smoked taste. Yes, this one is a real crown-pleaser!


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The Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill comes complete with a built-in thermometer so you can cook like a real pro! It is unbelievably versatile – boasting the ability to grill by allowing wood or charcoal, which is simply placed in the gill’s side box. Its cast iron grates retain more heat and allow for more even cooking. The bottom-line: Anything you cook on this BBQ is sure to come out mouthwatering good and is going to make you look like you deserve your own outdoor cooking show! But, only you will know the truth – that the Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill did all hard the work for you, eliminating the frustrating guessing that often comes with cooking outdoors and providing you, your family and friends (and everyone’s taste buds) with a meal that won’t soon be forgotten! Click Here For More on the Smokin’ Pro Charcoal Smoker Grill!

Again, the above example showcases natural writing – almost conversational. And, because it took more than 300 words to cover everything and pique my visitor’s interest, I stretched it to just over 500 words. Once you try this, you’ll see that when you start writing, you often find it such fun that you go over the 300 words. Now, have a look at this for yourself:

In the above screenshot, – you will see now see how my ‘BBQ’ Product Page appears, once I have uploaded my text © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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into my template and then displayed in the ‘View Page’ view. Again, – as a reminder to readers, –, in the ezWebBuilder, I first imported the text for my BBQ page by clicking on the Manage Pages in the toolbar across the top of the page:

Then, I clicked on the ‘Edit’ link for my BBQ product page as shown in the screenshot below.

At this point, I copied the text for my BBQ product page that I had created in Microsoft Notepad and paste it into the form provided.


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Next, I highlight the entire headline, so that I can change the font size to 14 and bold the text.

I then bold the sub-headline, and change the font size to 12.

When I am done, I click the ‘Save’ button.

Time to fully optimize Now that we have our Product Page text imported into the ez-WebBuilder, – we need to fully optimize the page for high search engine rankings. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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There are two remaining parts to the optimization process. 1. Optimize your text 2. Optimize your HTML First, – I’ll give you an overview of each process, – with detailed explanations instructions to follow. In the first part, – you will go into the page itself, – in Edit view, – and do the following: 1. Bold the upper left primary keyword in 10pt text 2. Italicize the primary keyword in the headline. 3. Optimize your headline (H1) 4. Optimize your sub-headline (H2) Secondly, you will open the HTML view and do the following: 5. Insert your Title tag 6. Insert your Page description tag 7. Insert your Keyword meta tags 8. Insert your Alt tags

Bolded keyword Any page that you write should have the Primary Keyword bolded in the top left hand corner of the page. So, – every page that I write has a simple rule, – whereby I bold that pages Primary keyword discretely in the far upper left (or right depending on the template). I reduce its size to 8pt or 10pt because it’s really not for readers. It’s strictly ‘spider food’.


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Hungry little creatures aren’t they? Fussy eaters, too!

Add a ‘Friendly URL’ The ez-WebBuilder also gives you the option for adding a ‘Friendly URL’ to the page. (I.e. http://www.gas-bbqgrills.net/gas_barbecue_grills.html) I recommend that you use your Primary keyword for the page, separating the individual words with underscores as shown here.

Italicized your Primary keyword Experts say that your italicized Primary keyword should appear near the top of the page. Generally, I simply italicize my Primary keyword (or the variation thereof), which almost always appears in my main headline.


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Optimize your headline (H1) An H1 tag simply tells the spiders that the text between the “H1 and /H1” is the main headline for the page. An H2 tag is a sub-headline for the page. To add these headline tags, you will first need to switch from the Activedit Editor, to the Basic Editor by clicking on the Click here link, – as shown in the screenshot below.

Once you’ve changed Editors, simply return to the page you’re working on to see the Basic HTML Editor view of the page. In my case, I have returned to the BBQ Product page, where I now see that I no longer see the nicely formatted text as shown above, but rather, the HTML version of the page.

You may feel a bit nervous about touching the html, but just follow these instructions and you will be fine. At this point we simply need to add the
and
tags, – which is short for your headline tag, – in the locations shown below.


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Next, I am going to update my sub-headline by scrolling down the page a little so that I can add the
opening and
closing tags as shown here.

Once you’re done, and you have pressed “save”, you should switch back from the Basic HTML Editor to the Activedit Editor and return to the page. If the font size is larger than normal, simply change it back to your 14pt for the headline and 12pt for the subheadline, – once the procedure is completed.

How-to create your Title tag, Keyword and Meta Description tags In the HTML area of each page, it is necessary to insert a title (“Title Tag”), description (“Meta Description Tag”) and keywords (“Keyword Tag”) for the page.


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This is and easy, but extremely important item that is critical to obtaining top rankings at the search engines. In a moment I’ll show you how to insert these tags into the page, but first I’ll take a minute and show you how they should best be formatted. In days gone by, I would simply list my Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords for the page title. Old Style: (I.e. gas barbecue grills, barbecue smokers, portable gas grills) Today, because the search engines are far more advanced, I can now create a title for the page that reads more naturally (there’s that word again). So now, I can develop an accurate title for the page, that reads well and entices the reader to action. New Style: (I.e. Gas Barbecue Grills, Smokers & Portable Gas Grills to YOUR Door!) If you have a close look at the new style title tag, you will notice that I only used the word barbecue once, because it reads better, and that what the search engines want. As for the Meta Description tag, it is simply an accurate 20-30 description of you page that includes your Primary and Tier-1 Secondar keywords. The Keyword tag is simply a listing on your Primary, Tier-1 and Tier-2 Secondary keywords. Next, I’ll give you a further example of what these tags could look like, and how to insert them.

How-to insert your Title tag, Keyword and Meta Description tags Before you begin, – be sure to have your written page title (title tag), page description (meta-description) and have your Primary and tier-1 keywords (meta-keywords) handy.


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NOTE: This was prepared using your “Product Page Optimization chart. This is very simple to do. Find and select the Edit tab for the BBQ product page:

Next, select the Internet Marketing tab:

And paste your information into the fields provided, click ‘Save’ and you’re done. See sample below.


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Your Home page is ALSO Product Page You have read repeatedly that you need 5-6 Product Pages. In my BBQ site example above, – you have seen me choose 6 Primary Keywords to serve as Product Page content. But, the main page (home page, index page) that a person would land on if they simply typed your URL needs to be organized EXACTLY as I have done in my ‘BBQ’ Product Page, – for it, too, could feature a merchant or two. Since my site has been named after a good keyword, – gas-bbq-grills.net, – it will serve perfectly as my Home Pages’ Primary Keyword. As in every Product page, – I will also choose a number of Tier-2 Secondary Keywords, however with the home page I usually increase the amount of Tier-2 Secondary Keywords to 20-30 (sometimes more). The only difference between your Home Page and a Product Page is structural, – whereas the Home page (index page) is your main page ending with .html (I.e. http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/index.html) – all Product Pages are linked off the index page with a /file-name.html. So, when you finish importing your content to your template, – you will have 5-6 Product Pages, (as well as your home page).


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Article Pages explained At the completion of this manual you will then begin the task of writing articles, – or adding content. Note: You will need to add articles to your site on an ongoing basis. Why, you ask? To keep your site current for visitors, and because the search engines favor “fresh” sites over “stale” ones. Your goal should be to think like an investigative reporter for your site to keep your eyes open for any information that can be added for your visitors. For instance, during the Super Bowl, I saw a commercial for Motorola that detailed the launching of a new product. I did not yet know about this product, therefore I had no content developed on it. What did I do: I added a page for the product and developed content that my visitors would need. Remember, I said earlier that you should pick a topic you are interested in, for your job will be to become a bona fide expert on this topic. FYI: My own rule of thumb is this: Add a minimum of 1 article per week, 2 preferably. Adding an article daily is euphoria and adding 1 every six hours, well, that’s the best. ☺ When optimizing these Article Pages you simply follow all the rules offered for preparing Product Pages. Plus they will be linked strategically according to rules that are fully explained in Step-8, Building Traffic from Multiple Sources. But for now, – just know that the basic rule for Article pages is this: Each “Article page” links back to at least one “Product page” from somewhere within the text of the page. See samples: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/articles.html (Password = freedom)


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When the time comes to write your content, (articles) simply follow the same steps for organizing Product Page, as I have done, – by using the two Article page charts provided. As far as your Article page keywords are concerned, – you simply work down your keyword list and research and write as much content as possible, – choosing each page’s Primary Keyword, – one or two Tier-1 Secondary Keywords, – and a handful of carefully selected Tier-2 Secondary Keywords, – just like you did for your Product pages. But the actual writing of these can wait until you have completed this manual, for there is a bit more work to do.

Other supporting pages Moving forward, you should know that there are a number of other types of pages that can and should be added to your site, providing you with more exciting opportunities to cash-in on your visitor’s interests. Because of this, I have set up a few samples of these pages for you to study through links I provide to each page below. Again, I urge you not to copy these - as they are provided as examples only. Remember: If we copy each other’s work, we are only jeopardizing our own standing in the search engines - defeating our best efforts. Besides, armed with the information in this step, you will surely find crafting content for your sites, or hiring a writer to assist with this, is a cinch! And if you struggle at all, think back to the rule of thumb, which is to write for your visitors! Just think through what each page is about and what information you would want to see on the page if you were a visitor. It really is that easy! Start by doing a ‘Google search’ using the name of each of the pages below (i.e. “contact us”) to examine what other sites are doing. Make lots of notes, organize your © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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thoughts, and carefully develop each of the pages accordingly.

Note: By adding quotation marks in the term “contact us” as shown above when doing a Google search, the term becomes an exact search and will only return searches with that exact phrase. Based on my experiences, I suggest you strongly consider adding the following pages to each of your sites: •

Contact Us – This page typically includes your contact information (i.e. company name, name of editor, mailing address, phone number and email). I sometimes include the contact information for my merchants (i.e. Grill Superstore) as well, so my visitors can direct any appropriate questions to them. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/contact_us.html (Password = freedom)

•

Message From The Editor – This page is a message from the editor, and is typically the editor’s biography. It should also include a logical tie-in to why the site was created. If you decide to add a similar page, I would encourage you to do a Google search for “about the editor” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing and to design a page that is unique to you. It is also a good opportunity to include a few logical links to other pages on the site. I would also include a photo. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/editor.html


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•

About Us – This page is usually about the company behind the site. It might include links to the ‘Contact Us’ and ‘Message From The Editor’ pages. Do a Google search for “about us” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/about_us.html

•

Privacy Policy – This page outlines your policy for dealing with the privacy of your visitors. Do a Google search for “privacy policy” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/privacy_policy.html

•

Terms Of Use Agreement – This page outlines to your visitors your terms for site use. Do a Google search for “terms of use agreement” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/terms_of_use.html

•

Link To Us – This page provides visitors with a number of pre-written links that they can use to link to your site. Do a Google search for “link to us” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/link_to_us.html

And those pages might be just the start. In addition to the pages above, the reader also has a selection of pre-packaged pages available to them within the ez-WebBuilder system. A word to the wise: Don’t “turn on” pages just because it is easy and set yourself up for a common mistake and that is overdoing it! Instead, approach the additional pages much like you have your home and product pages – with attention to detail and the visitor in mind!


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And, you can rely on the tutorial provided in the ezWebBuilder system prior to each of the types of pages available to you. The tutorials are very thorough and give you a complete A to Z overview for each type of page including easy-to-understand information on “how to” and “edit” each. Some of these pages will be suitable for your site; some will not.

This really can be fun (no to mention highly beneficial) so play with the different types of pages by turning them on. You can always delete any page you don’t want (very quickly and easily). Another word to the wise about this: Set aside enough time to do a really, really great job on every page you include on your site. Do not add a page simply for the sake of having another page. Add pages only when you can make sure they maintain the same level of quality your home page and product pages boast.


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Here are three more samples for you to review: •

Links – This page features a helpful list of neatly organized websites for your visitor. If you decide to add a similar page, I encourage you to do a Google search for “link pages” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/links.html

•

Recommend Website – This page allows your visitors to automatically send an email to a friend with a recommendation to visit your site. If you decide to add a similar page, I would encourage you to do a Google search for “recommend site” or “refer a friend” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is uniquely yours. See samples: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/recommend.html

•

Press Releases – This feature allows you to easily add, manage and date stamp any press release (more on this in Step #8) you have listed on your site. If you decide to add a similar page, I encourage you to do a Google search for “press releases” or “media releases” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing, then design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/press_releases.html

•

Articles – This feature allows you to easily add, manage and date stamp all of the articles listed on your site. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/articles.html (Password = freedom)

GREAT job! Take a minute to catch your breath. You’ve worked through a wealth of information – and you are well on your way. Let’s enter the “home stretch” now.


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Yes, you really are about to finish the text for all of your pages. Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back before we get back on course…

Adding photos and images Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, it couldn’t be truer especially on the Net. Considering this, as you create content for your pages (again, keeping your visitor in mind), also think about adding photos, diagrams, charts or any illustration you think will serve your visitor well. To show you how well pictures and illustrations can work, think about this Handbook for just a minute. Isn’t it true that the pictures and graphics I have provided have helped to really drive this information home? This is certainly no accident. By including “visuals” on your pages, you further cement the information on that page in your visitor’s mind (while prompting action). Bottom line: pictures and graphics work! And, any page you add to your site will benefit strongly from an image of some type. Before you start scratching your head here, you should know that ez-WebBuilder also includes an amazing library of images that you can pick and choose from to add to your pages.


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In addition, you can upload custom images of your own. I will provide you with information on how and where to order graphics for your pages shortly. But first, let’s brainstorm some ideas for the graphics I can use on the pages of the BBQ site. •

I would like a nice photograph of the editor for the ‘Message From The Editor’ page – maybe I’ll take it with my digital camera with a chef’s hat and redcheckered apron on, standing in front of a barbecue.

•

I would also like to include an image of the editor’s signature for the bottom of the ‘Message From The Editor’ page. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/editor.html

•

I would like to add a few photos of people enjoying a backyard barbecue for the home and product pages.


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•

And, I would like to add a photograph of any barbecue we discuss, mention or review on the site. I’ll grab these images from the merchant site. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net (Password = freedom)

To save yourself wasted time and effort, take just a minute to review the tutorial for adding images to your site. The tutorial is located in the ‘Help & Support’ area on the ‘Adding Images’ link of the ez-WebBuilder site.

Baby step #6 Identify the images In the same way you sat down and thought through what you wanted to “say” with your content, think now about what you want your images to convey. Next comes the fun part - browse through the ezWebBuilder’s images library for suitable photos for your site.


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You can also do a Google search for “low cost images” or you can visit the site below (Stock.Xchng) to choose from almost 200,000 royalty free photos that can be added to your site. http://www.sxc.hu/ This is a gem of a site and one you will go back to again and again – I certainly do.

Baby step #7 Place an order for custom graphics Of course, if you want to hire your own graphic artist, simply do a Google search for “low cost graphic designer,” or go to Elance (http://www.elance.com) – yes, the same site where you can find professional writers – and post a project for graphic design, explaining in detail your exact needs.

Baby step #8 Upload your images By now, you should be familiar with the ez-WebBuilder images tutorial. So, let’s start having some fun! Get ready to add your images. In fact, get off on the right by working on your site page-by-page and adding the text and the images as you go. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Take some time now – relying on the ez-WebBuilder tutorials to guide you, to add images to your pages. This is unbelievably easy so do it now and see for yourself the great results! Only you will know how easy the process was.

Baby step #9 Wrap-up your pages Conclude this step by taking the time now to wrap-up the content for pages we discussed – including the addition of images. Of course, you have not added the articles yet, but you will soon. It’s important to have your site completed prior this point – most affiliate programs and Google AdSense will not consider approving your site if it is not completed. A completed site means that your home page, product pages and supporting pages are complete. There is no “under construction” pages. In the next chapter, you will join some good affiliate programs. Bet you never thought you’d get this far this fast and that the journey to here would be as fun and as simple. Step 6 has been long and involved, but you persevered and done some great work – Congratulations! Step 7 is a short one and easy to grasp, so don’t stop here. It really does get easier (and much more fun).

Baby step #10: Complete the checklist for Step #6 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #7, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – It’s time to research the merchants © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #2 – It’s time to make some observations Baby step #3 – What’s it going to be? Baby step #4 – Use a ‘work order’ to organize your thoughts Part 2 – Upload your content Baby step #5 – Import your content Baby step #6 – Identify the images Baby step #7 – Place an order for custom graphics Baby step #8 – Upload your images Baby step #9 – Wrap up your pages Baby step #10 – Complete this checklist

Once you have… …content and images for your pages, and understand the keywords and how to use them, how to upload images and optimize the pages for search engines… then… …you are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 7 #7 A Affffiilliiaattee PPrroog grraam mss + dS Seen nssee = +A Ad = PPrrooffiittss Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …you will have joined one affiliate program, become a member of the Google AdSense sponsored link program, printed and studied all aspects of each program, selected links from each, copied the HTML code for each into the appropriate pages, and previewed all Product pages to ensure the links are loading correctly.

Take your time and get acquainted In previous modules I cautioned you about losing focus by dabbling too much on third party websites in the early stages of working with this manual. However, as you prepare to join each ‘affiliate’ and ‘sponsored link’ program, I’d like to encourage you to acquaint yourself with each program as you join them. In other words, take your time here – and know that it will really pay off in the end! It will provide a good training ground - especially for my entry-level readers. And, for those of you who may not be just starting out, this will reacquaint you with important information and enable you to learn important up-to-date information that you may not already know.


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Step #7 - Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits

And, although there are many great affiliate programs, – which you will undoubtedly join as your publishing career progresses, – I’ll use TheGrillSuperStore.com, to walk you through the process of joining an affiliate program, and placing “ads” to your home and product pages. Then, once we are done with affiliate programs, I’ll introduce you to the Google AdSense sponsored link program. Buckle up, folks. This step promises us a fun and exciting ride! (And we deserve some fun after making our way through the previous long step – congratulations to you once again!) ☺


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PPaarrtt II – grraam m prroog n yyoou – JJooiin urr ffiirrsstt aaffffiilliiaattee p Again, an affiliate program is a business relationship where one website owner (a “merchant”) agrees to pay another website owner (an “affiliate”) a commission simply for referring customers. Merchants typically manage their affiliate program by joining a commission network such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, LinkConnector, NetShops or ShareaSale who provide third-party tracking and infrastructure – or by purchasing and installing specialized tracking software on their own server.

Baby step #1: Join the affiliate program www.netshopsaffiliates.com Netshopsaffiliates (“NetShops”) is the commission network who provides the third-party tracking and infrastructure for the TheGrillSuperstore, the merchant I selected for GasBBQ-Grills.net. In my case, I’ll click the ‘Join Now’ button and go to the ‘Join Affiliates’ area.

As mentioned earlier, it’s important that your site is complete - at least in appearance, prior to joining your first affiliate program. And, you DO need your own domain name.


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Step #7 - Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits - Part I – Join your first affiliate program

You should also be prepared to write a brief description of your website. This information is conveyed to the advertiser, – who may use this data to determine whether or not to approve you. Once you have completed the affiliate application, in most cases, you should be approved instantly and receive your login information by email.

In other cases, some advertisers approve each publisher manually, so you may have to wait a day or two for approval. Once you receive your password, – AND change it to your PERMANENT password, – then you should login to the member’s area. Once logged-in to your account area, – take some time, – and familiarize yourself with the features and tutorials provided by the advertiser. If they have provided you with printed literature, as many do, take the time to print and review it. The advertiser knows their program better than anyone else and if they have taken the time to develop a document that can provide you with some insight, it’s worthwhile slowing down a little and taking in the information provided. In my case, TheGrillSuperStore.com does a reasonable job of providing me with the information I need to know to successfully add and manage the ads I plan to place on the BBQ site.


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First, pre-determine your best affiliate programs When I first got started with affiliate programs I had little guidance, – so I joined every program I could find. What a mistake THAT was! Once again, the expression ‘less is more’ can guide you here. Part of the problem with wholesale membership in affiliate programs is the tedious task of managing it all. Remember, – that whenever you join an affiliate program you have entered into an agreement that will require some of your time to manage. If you overdo it when joining programs, you will be inundated with email. And this eventually leads to either neglect or overwhelm! But, you can avoid the hassle I had to go through by preparing a short list of potential advertisers before joining ANY of them. Then join them all in one sitting.


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You are halfway there In determining which merchants to go with, – you already have a head start, – because of the reconnaissance I did in Step-5, Add Keyword Focused Content. There you saw me select a group of six probable merchants for my barbecue site (and six IS enough). These include: 1. TheGrillSuperStore.com 2. Barbecues.com 3. Wal-Mart.com 4. Instawares.com 5. Amazon.com 6. OmahaSteaks.com And selecting potential ‘advertisers’ for the barbecue site early on in the process makes my work easier now. This is also true for readers of this manual, – who have been diligent in completing the suggested steps sequentially, – and need to pre-determine the best choice of ‘advertisers’ prior to going online. In my opinion, – the preparation you’ve done better prepares you to join programs, – because you have more definite plans for your site than the average publisher. In fact, you should have a list of the exact merchants you want for each Product page of your site, – by simply referring to your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart’.

Why a short list of merchants works best Remember that we only have 5-6 Product pages.


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The strategic placement of a few advertisers on each page is quite sufficient to make good money. Plus, many of your advertisers will easily overlap. By that I mean, – that a single advertiser could be appropriate for several different Product pages. For example: On the BBQ site, I have a Product page about ‘Barbecues’, another about ‘Grills’, one for ‘Smokers, another for ‘Portable Barbecues’ and one about ‘Barbecue Accessories’. One logical advertiser for all of these Product pages is obviously TheGrillSuperStore.com, that’s why I chose them, because they have products suitable for each of these pages. So, as you can see, you could end up with just a handful of lucrative advertisers being represented across the full spectrum of all your product pages. The key here is to realize that a handful of relevant merchants for each site you build equates to a money machine! And the Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords for that Product page will automatically suggest the best types of advertisers. In all, there should be very little guesswork. Many Webmasters mistakenly think that they need to cram dozens of offers into every page. My question to you is this: Whenever you walk into a typical brick n’ mortar store to buy something, – do you appreciate it when the staff swarm all over with cheesy grins accompanied by the commonplace question, “may I help you?” Or, – do you prefer being approached by a friendly clerk who simply says, – “thank-you for coming in, hopefully you will find what you want. My name is…if I can be of any assistance please don’t hesitate to ask.” © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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A website that opens with an assault of confusing or annoying messages runs the risk of losing impact, – because the defenses tend go up in most people, – when initially offered too much information, before their needs are properly addressed. A few rules of thumb for my sites are to: 1. Be brief 2. Be clear 3. Be helpful

Say NO to flash banners I have also learned the hard way that animated banners can be counterproductive, as well. Oh, I know, they look so neat. But, the whole dot-com crash of a while back was caused partially because many people banked too heavily on the fact that flash banner advertising was the wave of the future. Whereas studies show that not only do very few people click on banner ads, but also, that the eye of the visitor actually averts them. Until studies show differently, I am, for the most part, sticking with text-based links primarily. The fact is, that my traffic stats prove conclusively that text links or banners that appear text based (graphics) consistently out-perform animated banners - by a mile!

Why referrals work best As you already know, your site will first provide informative, concise information (content) related to your visitors search, – and then discreetly offer assistance, – in the form of a text-based link to a merchant, – which is © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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usually placed within and/or below the 300+ words of content. And a simple text link is all you need. However, I also include a graphic in some cases, – but NO distracting flash banners. So, even though most advertisers offer an array of marketing materials (creative), – you would be very wise to heed my advice here and go with a simple text link (which most also provide). NOTE: Be sure to modify your text links to have the same appearance, – in terms of layout, font and size as the body of your page. It is my belief that one reason for my high conversion rate is that my merchant links blend into the page, – thereby attracting the eye, – rather that distracting the eye, as is often the case with animated banners, – which viewers ignore in droves because, to them, it is obviously “just advertising”. I liken it to reading about a company in a magazine or newspaper versus seeing an ad for a company. The ad seems like a ‘pitch’. While the article appears like an endorsement, – since it is part of the copy. It is actually a referral made by the author (you) of the article being read by your visitor. So simply offer some ‘in context’ words about a merchant related to that page’s content and include a link. Remember that if a visitor finds your site, – and is interested enough to read some of what you’ve written, – to the point where they eventually glance at your merchant text-link, – then they really are inclined to see you as an authority. And you are.


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For instance, – if you chose baby gift baskets as your topic, – then researched the heck out of ‘baby gifts’, – offering 300+ words on the subject, – which your reader responded positively, too, – then discreetly added that Arons-Baby-Baskets.com might be a good place to shop online for excellent baby gifts, – you have earned the right to be an expert. In any case, at that point, you certainly know a lot more than most of your readers; so don’t be shy to make a recommendation or two.

Join only your best affiliate programs With your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank’ chart you have established not only the group of merchants you plan to represent, – but have also organized these merchants according to their most appropriate product page. This will greatly simplify your task of adding merchants to each page, because you now have a clear idea of where you’re headed prior to selecting advertisers.

Baby step #2: Place some links on your site To demonstrate the process you will go though, – I will join a program for my barbecue site and add a link to the BBQ Product page. The merchant I have chosen for the top position on my BBQ Product page is: TheGrillSuperStore.com. I’ll join their program at NetshopsAffiliates (www.netshopsaffiliates.com), the third-party tracking company for TheGrillSuperStore.com and place a link on my BBQ Product page, – so you can more easily visualize a similar process YOU will follow as you join your affiliate programs and place their links on your 5-6 Product pages. Note: This exercise is to give you a visual on what you will be doing with your own merchants. You may never join © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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NetShopAffiliates, but may find merchants through Commission Junction, Linkshare etc.

What happens if a merchant rejects me? Not all merchants will accept you as an affiliate for a variety of reasons. Don’t take it personally. Simply send off an email or give the merchant a call and explain to them why you feel they should reconsider your application. This works most of the time. And if it doesn’t, – simply move on to the next merchant on your list. With so many to choose from these days, – you will never have a shortage of merchants.

How to get links from Netshops I first click the “Campaigns” link in the login area.


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Then, as you will see in the above screenshot, there are four ways to find merchants: 1. By Campaign 2. By Other Criteria 3. By Category 4. By Type Of Banner Since I already know who I’m looking for, – I simply go to the By Campaign list and scroll down the alphabetical directory until I find TheGrillSuperStore.com.

TheGrillSuperStore looks like a good bet I chose TheGrillSuperStore.com to be placed ahead of the others on my ‘BBQ’ Product page because they pay 10% and Barbecues.com only pays 6%. I’ll place Barbecues.com in the #2 position. Now it’s not always true that the higher commission merchant will make more money for you, but, over time,


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as I analyze my tracking reports, I’ll get a better idea of who coverts best. If I find that my 6% commission merchant actually makes more money that the 10% merchant, – because the conversion rate for the former is greater, – then I simply change their position. And when I say ‘position’, – I am referring to the order in which they appear on my site. Generally, I gain many more ‘click-thrus’ from merchants listed first. So it’s important to have your higher paying, – or better converting, – advertiser ahead of the others.

Ten links to choose from As you can see by the screenshots below, – I have a number of choices in TheGrillSuperStore.com’s Links area. They actually offer 10 different links, – although not all are shown in the following screenshots.

Banner Ad

Logo Ad © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Text Link Ad

And out of the total of 10 ads, – I found 3 text link ads. No problem however, because all I need is one.

Get HTML Next, I’ll select the ‘text link ad’ above for my BBQ Product page, so you can more easily visualize a similar process that YOU will follow with your merchant.

First, I would like a new browser window to open each time a visitor clicks on the text link ad so that they will still remain on my site by opening a new browser over top of your site, – rather leaving the site entirely. This is important because you don’t want to lose a visitor who may click on a merchant that doesn’t interest them. In the screenshot below, you will see what a visitor to my Gas-BBQ-Grills.net site sees when clicking through to a merchant. Notice that my Gas-BBQ-Grills.net site remains open in the background, – so if my visitor closes TheGrillSuperStore merchant site, – they still remain with me, – and may either bookmark, read further, or visit another of my advertisers.


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This can be easily accomplished by making a very simple addition to the merchants’ HTML - as highlighted in blue in the screenshot that follows.

Time to cut and paste So, now that I have added the above-mentioned additions to the HTML, – I’ll hit Ctrl-A on my keyboard to highlight the HTML, – and then I’ll hit Ctrl-C on my keyboard to copy it from Netshops (with my precious pay codes embedded trust me, they are there). Try these simple keyboard shortcuts, you will love them. They work the same as the mouse right-click, copy and paste method. Next, I’ll login to the ez-WebBuilder and open the BBQ Product page where I intend to place the link. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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NOTE: Be sure that you switch from the ‘Activedit Editor’ shown below to the ‘Basic Editor’.

In the two screenshots that follow, I scroll to the location where I want to insert my text link ad and left-click the mouse so that the flashing cursor appears.

In the screenshot below, you will see that I then pasted the link into the location. I did this by hitting Ctrl-V to ‘paste’ my link into that location.


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In a moment I will show you how to modify your text (when necessary – so no worries). But for now, let’s assume I’m happy with the text link as it is, – so I hit ‘Save’.

How to modify your Font For aesthetic reasons it is important to keep the Font styles and sizes of your links consistent with your content. But, first I want to switch from the ‘Basic Editor’ back to the ‘Activedit Editor’.

Then, I return to my BBQ Product page and scroll down to the bottom of my page and locate my text link, where I notice that the font needs to be increased in size to match the rest of the text on the page.


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I make these changes by simply highlighting the text and changing the font size to 12 as shown below.

Now your advertiser has a link on your site Once done, then hit the ‘Save’ button at the bottom to see how your text link will appear to visitors. The screenshot below shows my text link. Notice that the font style now matches the rest of my content.


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How to modify your text In my case, I think I can improve upon the ad provided by TheGrillSuperstore, so that it better suits the content of the page and increases click-thru rates.

How to modify TheGrillSuperstore text As alluded to above, because of the importance of linkpopularity, I always try to ‘hyperlink’ the pages Primary keyword, once somewhere on the page, – or at least have it contain the Primary keyword. For this reason, you will almost never see a link on any of my sites that say, for instance, ‘click here’. In the case of a, – Click Here hyperlink – the ever important spider, has NO IDEA of its relevancy, – unless your page is all about “click here” (which I’m sure it isn’t). Whereas, if the linked text was: the very best gas barbecue grills, or just, gas barbecue grills, – then I’ve automatically scored more relevancy points. So look below at how I might modify TheGrillSuperstore.com text link to not only inform my visitor, but also feed my spider. Gas Barbecue Grills - Shop at The Grill Superstore for the best selection and prices on outdoor grills.


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Another way to add a text link Granted, the method for adding a text link I just demonstrated is a little cumbersome because of the need to switch between the ‘Basic’ and ‘Activedit’ editors. However, it is helpful to understand this method because I am a firm believer that you should get comfortable in the HTML area of a page. Now, I would like to show you a simpler method of adding a text link ad to a page. In the HTML of the text link ad provided by TheGrillSuperstore.com, I have highlighted the actual “pay code” in blue.

If you look closely at the pay code you will notice it also includes my affiliate ID; aid=CD2164, which is important because I would like to get paid (as do you).

So, with this understanding, let me now know show you a simpler and much quicker way, to add text link ad to any of your Product pages in the ez-WebBuilder.


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First, copy the entire pay code by highlighting it and then hitting Ctrl-C (“copy”)

Next, to give you a visual of the process, I’ll go to the BBQ Product page on my site within the ez-WebBuilder, and highlight the text I wish to link.

I then click on the ‘Insert Link’ icon located in the toolbar.

Next, I paste my pay code into the ‘HREF’ field, and add; _blank to the Target’ field so that a new browser is opened each time the link is clicked.


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Once done, I click on ‘Insert Link’, and now I have a new text link ad on the page.

A little simpler don’t you think?

Tips, tricks and techniques Okay, now you know how to get text links for your site. If you run into problems, have questions or concerns, just send off an email to ez-WebBuilder support or contact your affiliate manager. Additionally, here is a short list of ideas to help you to get the most click-thrus and higher search engine rankings: 1. As a general rule, I place my merchants below the content portion of my page, – but sometimes I disperse them throughout the page, within the text itself. It’s up to you. You will see a sample of this when you visit the BBQ sample site I created. 2. Remember, that all words in your text link count for density. So when rewriting these links, I sometimes include my Primary or Tier-1 Secondary keywords as you would any other paragraph, if you are writing a full blown endorsement. 3. You can make these text links appear as copy and make them as long as you want. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Don’t forget your Home page As you know, – your home page, – called the index page in the ez-WebBuilder, – and often referred to as your ‘main’ page, is also a Product page. Since this is the gateway to all of your Product pages, I spend a good deal of time optimizing it for its Primary, Tier-1 Secondary, Keyword Variations and Tier-2 Secondary Keywords. Within the page text, I also attempt to link to at least 2 or 3 of the sites’ Product pages. That way the spider really gets a sense of what your site is MOST about when first visiting your home page. See: http://www.gas-bbq-grills/index.html

Preview your site As you add merchants to each of your product pages, it is best to check them as you go, to ensure that the links are working. This makes it easier to sleep at night. Once you have finished each Product page, you are definitely entering the home stretch – GREAT work!

Revenue links on article pages Right from the beginning, I made a distinction between pages containing merchant links and pages NOT containing merchant links. This approach offered a big advantage if merchant links needed to be updated – and they DO from time to time – because I wouldn’t have the nightmare of plodding through thousands of pages replacing links. I called pages with merchants “product pages”. I called pages without merchants “article” pages. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Product pages were limited to a very manageable “handful;” while article pages sometimes number in the hundreds.

Revenue links on Article pages I first heard about the Google AdSense program in October, 2003 from reading Alan Gardyne’s excellent newsletter. Google AdSense (which, unfortunately, wasn’t available in 2002) changed the way I look at article pages. This exciting development allows website publishers to generate revenue on EVERY page without the need to manage numerous advertising links. I cover the Google AdSense program in my Google Mastery report.

Login Panel (for Google Mastery): www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/login-panel.html Username: barney Password: google

But here’s a quick overview of the concept. Google has set up its own pay-per-click program so that businesses can get traffic on a pay-per-click basis. And now we can profit by being on the receiving end of pay-per-clicks. Here’s how. Google is willing to do a revenue split with Internet publishers – a split of the revenue they get from businesses that pay them for click-thru’s to their sites. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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As a member of the Google AdSense program you place JavaScript code on your site that will display a set of Ads By Google. And if a visitor clicks on one of these ads – you’ll earn a piece of the pie. The amounts vary from industry to industry – and from keyword to keyword – but that is all explained by Google when you join.

Now here is the reason these Google Ads are different from a typical merchant ad Google uses JavaScript which only needs to be inserted ONCE. And JavaScript doesn’t bleed PageRank either (another issue, which is covered in my Google Mastery report). Once inserted – those revenue-generating ads populate ALL of your pages automatically. All 300 pages if that’s the size of your site! And better yet, – Google displays the MOST appropriate ad based on it’s analysis of your pages content. Meaning that if your page was about “baby strollers” and Google had a pay-per-click client in the baby stroller business – then a baby stroller Ad By Google would automatically appear on that page. Same with every page of your site. And, I have set-up a few styles of AdSense ads for my Gas-BBQ-Grills.net site. http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net Password: freedom As you will see, there are a few varied color options. I’ll tell you upfront that I prefer the color of the AdSense ad I used on the homepage because it really stands out. Cool, eh? © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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What a boon this has been for students who got the message early on that to win at this you MUST continually add quality content to your site. And, you don’t stop until your keyword list is exhausted. You then build another site on another topic – and just keep going.

What about my merchants? My only initial caution was that these Ads By Google would detract from my merchants. And they did. However, any lost revenue was dramatically compensated for by increased revenue from Google. When joining, I caution you carefully study and adhere to their policies. They police things quite closely in order to protect the integrity of their program. And if you run afoul of them, you lose your account – end of story.


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PPaarrtt 2 n tth 2– hee G – JJooiin gllee A dS Goooog Seen nssee Ad ssp poon nssoorreed d lliin nkk p grraam m prroog I am not a fan of “newsletters” and don’t subscribe to many; however I do read what Allan Gardyne, of Associate Programs, has to say.

It was in the 226th issue that Allan predicted “Google's AdSense Program” is going to have a huge impact on ad networks and the affiliate marketing industry”. It was a bold remark. And he was very right.

Revenue streams off every page I encourage every reader to join the Google AdSense program once their sites are up because my students and I are doing very well with it, as Allan predicted we would. The key thing for us is this: AdSense allows website publishers to generate revenue on EVERY page without the need to manage merchant links. I covered Google AdSense earlier, which dealt with article pages, but here’s another review of the concept. Google has set up it’s own pay-per-click program so that businesses can get traffic on a pay-per-click basis. Here’s a peek at typical Ads By Google as they might appear on a website.


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Step #7 - Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits - Part 2 – Join the Google AdSense sponsored link program

Now here’s how you benefit: Google is willing to do a split on the revenue they get from those businesses that pay them for click thru’s to their sites. As a member of the Google AdSense program you simply place JavaScript code on your site ONCE. (Outlined further in Step #8 – Building Trafffic From Multiple Sources) From that time forward, these ads display on each page. And if a visitor clicks on one of these ads – you’ll earn a piece of the action – just for the click. The amounts vary from industry to industry – and from keyword to keyword – but that is all explained by Google when you join. Now here’s the reason these Google Ads are different from a typical merchant ad.

Baby step #3 Join the Google Adsense ‘sponsored link’ program Go to www.google.com/adsense/ and click the “Click Here To Apply” icon (Shown below) and apply to the AdSense program.


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Once you application has been approved, take some time and begin to familiarize yourself with the AdSense for Content, AdSense Blog, FAQ and Optimization Tips.

Setting up tracking channels You will want to track the performance of your pages - just like I do - so that you can determine the most profitable ad location and format for the page. I use “channels” to do this and you can, too. While there is no perfect formula for this - because every website and every topic is different - I will share which ad location and format has worked well for me. But first, I am going to take a minute and walk you through the process by setting up a few channels for GasBBQ-Grills.net. Stick with me here…


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Baby step #4 Set-up a few channels Once logged into your account, first click on the AdSense Setup tab, and then the Channels link.

Next, I scroll down the page to locate the Manage Custom Channels area (shown in the screenshot below).

I then create a name for each page that I would like to track, which, for now, is my for home and product pages. When I am done, I click ‘Create New Channel.’ Once done, I will see a list of channels that I have created, one for each of my home and product pages. You may add additional channels later for other pages on the site if you would like more detailed tracking.


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Now that we are done with setting up the channels, I need to determine where I plan to place my ad.

Google Ad placement strategies Although, what I am going to share with you may seem like common sense, it took me a couple of months of testing to find the best location for the ad on my page. You should know that ez-WebBuilder does provide a feature to automatically insert your Google AdSense ad on your pages (Click on “Manage Pages”, then the “Power Tools” tab, and then the “Add Google AdSense Code To Your Pages” link). However we can do a better job placing the ad on the page if we do it manually. And, I am going to save you a great deal of time and effort here by telling you upfront that, after testing (in most cases), I find that the best place to insert a Google ad is within the first paragraph of text. (See screenshot below)

Now, one of the main reasons I suspect this location works so well, is because we naturally read from left to right and the ad (after the headline), is definitely one of the first things we see on the page. I have numerous different sizes of ads available from Google and typically settle on one of the following sizes: 468x60, 160x600, 250x250 or 350x250 (as shown in this next screenshot). © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Still, I encourage you to learn how to test and try the different ad sizes provided by Google. This really is fun and highly beneficial. I also encourage you to try placing ads in different locations on the page (Google allows up to 3 ads per page). I have found that the skyscraper ads (a style of ad available in your AdSense account) can also produce good results. Try this now for yourself. You’re almost there; so don’t start cutting corners now.

Ad formats Google gives us the ability to modify the look of each of the ads we place on our sites. We can choose from border or no border, and we can change the color of the Link Title, Advertiser’s ad text, and the www.advertiser-url.com.


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Here are a few things to keep in mind when selecting a format for your ads. I have found that those with a designers flair have a tendency to want to blend-in-the-ad to match the look and feel of the website. Don’t do it. Ads should stand out and grab the reader’s attention. I have also found that the color of the ‘Link Title’, shown in the graphic above should be the standard “click-on-meblue”, because most people instantly recognize this color as a link. As I said above, there is no exact science you can rely on here and the best thing for you to do is to familiarize yourself with the AdSense system. You will use this system again and again so getting acquainted with it now just makes good sense. Because every site and every topic is different, you should start testing and tracking various formats so that you can determine which is best suited for your site’s visitors. Yes, I am going to say it again. EVERYTHING on your site is there for the visitor and EVERYTHING you do should be with the visitor in mind.

Baby step #5 Add some Google ads Let’s walk through the development of an ad format for your site now. We can even insert it within some code (that I supply) so that it will display nicely on the page. You’re really going to like this. Go to your Account Area now. Once there, click on the AdSense Setup tab, and then the AdSense for content link (as shown in the screenshot below).


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On the next page, select the type of Ad unit (I recommend choosing the default ‘Text and image ads’), and then press ‘Continue’.

On the next page, select your Ad Format. I would suggest choosing 250 x 250 Square for now.

You can preview all of the available Ad Formats by clicking on the link shown in the graphic above. Next, choose the ‘with-no-border’ from the drop-down menu shown below. You can change it later if you like. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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At this point, I would like to change the border and background color of the google ad from white, to the gray background color to match my site. As you can see in the screenshot above, the current # for both the Border and the Background is set to FFFFFF. I can find the # codes for the background color of my site, by heading over to ez-WebBuilder where I login to my account, and then click on the ‘Design’ icon in the toolbar.

Next, I click on the ‘Edit Body’ tab, and locate the Background # code, which, in my case, is C5CFB8. Yours will be different for your template. I make a note of the code, and you should, too.

I then head back to Google AdSense and replace the Border and Background # codes, which are currently FFFFFF, to the one I just collected from the ez-WebBuilder. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Once that’s done, I’ll scroll down the page, assign the ad I am creating to my BBQ Product page channel in the dropdown menu, and press ‘Continue’.

Ok, we’re almost done, and not too worry, once you get the hang of this, you will fly through it with great ease. When you press the ‘Continue’ button, shown in the previous screenshot, you are presented with the JavaScript for your new ad.

Not too worry; it is not nearly as scary as it looks. In truth, it can be great fun, so just relax, take a deep breath and keep moving forward here – the finish line’s in sight now! © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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And, while you’re taking a few deep breaths, I’d like to point out that the Quick Start Guide (which is visible in the screenshot above) is an excellent source for additional information, so feel free to check it out any time you need a little help. In fact, you may want to make a note of it, so you can refer back to it later. Next, I need you to login to the “updates” page to grab a copy of the code (shown below) I use to neatly display the Google ad in the first paragraph of a page. For information on the updates page, go to page 2 of this manual for the login URL, username and passcode. I had the wrapping code developed for my personal use and you are welcome to use it as well so that you may properly display the google ad on your page. Wrapping code shown below:

Now, what you need to do next is simply insert the Google AdSense JavaScript that you just created into the location of the wrapping code (as show above highlighted in blue). Once you have replaced the blue highlighted section with your google AdSense JavaScript, the combined code will look like this:


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Great work! All that’s left to do now is to head back over to the ezWebBuilder and insert the code into the page, below the headline (as shown below), in the Basic HTML Editor view.


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And then I press ‘Save’, to preview the new ad inserted into the first paragraph of my BBQ Product page.

As you can see, the google ad is posted above and you will notice a number of things: 1. The ad looks neat and tidy 2. The fonts are blue to remind readers it is a hyperlink 3. The text wraps nicely around the ad 4. The ad is on the left side of the page, following the natural flow to read left to right. Sure, we covered a lot of ground here, but as I said above, the finish line is in plain view now. But before we prepare to cross it together, I would like to point out that it’s really up to you to learn how to display the ads on your pages. Have fun with this. Be creative. Make your ads stand out. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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And, once you have done this, you will want to put your efforts to the test – measure the profitability of each ad. Now is the perfect time for a Starbuck’s break. You may want a little java in your veins for we are about to build a steady stream of visitors – all going straight to your new site.

Baby step #6: Complete the checklist for Step #7 At this point, prior to moving onto Step #6, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – Join an affiliate program Baby step #2 – Place some links on your site Part 2 – Join the Google AdSense sponsored link program Baby step #3 – Join the Google Adsense ‘sponsored link’ program Baby step #4 – Set up a few channels Baby step #5 – Add some Google ads Baby step #6 – Complete this checklist

At the completion of THIS step… …you have become a member of the Commission Junction network as a publisher, downloaded, printed and studied their 57-page Publisher Account Manager Guide, joined some of their most lucrative affiliate programs, selected links from your chosen advertisers, copied the HTML code for each into the appropriate Product page, embedded protective shareware into the HTML of your pages to protect them from ‘scumware’ and previewed all Product pages to ensure ads are loading correctly. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Then…you are ready for the NEXT step.


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S Stteep p# 8 #8 B Bu uiilld diin ng gT Trraaffffiicc ffrroom mM ullttiip pllee S Mu urrcceess Soou Desired outcome At the completion of THIS step… …you will have submitted your site to the major search engines, reviewed my Google Mastery report, have a good understanding of Link Popularity, created a linking plan for your site, begun the process of writing and continually adding Articles and linking them strategically to your Home and Product pages, created a site map, started to gather inbound links using the PAD technique, added “link to us” and “link” pages, considered purchasing a few links, and added a traffic analysis counter.

Now for the icing on the cake Kudos to you, for you truly deserve a pat on the back for a job well done! You have accomplished a great deal by completing the previous 7 steps. Now you are ready to finish things up. And, you’ll be happy to know that the final touches you are about to do are very simple – especially when compared to the work you’ve done so far. But, don’t be fooled by their simplicity.


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Step #8 - Building Traffic from Multiple Sources

By gaining a firm grasp on what I’m about to reveal, – you will position yourself to profit in a big way with affiliate and sponsored link programs, – in ANY industry you choose. By properly executing the few final steps in this module, you will dramatically improve your chances of getting massive exposure on the Net at the search engines, – especially Google.

Baby step #1: Submit your site to all the major search engines Until the search engines index you, – which can take between 5 minutes to 5 months, – you essentially have a lonely brochure that relies solely on your promotional efforts to drive eyeballs to it. But, thankfully your site has been carefully organized to rank highly with search engines so that people find you. But THAT can only take place after your site gets submitted to the search engines. Since the beginning of my online publishing career, I have relied on a “by donation only” service called SelfPromotion.com to submit to all the major search engines and indexes.


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One of the key components of this service is an extremely powerful automated submission tool. The owner, Robert Woodhead, originally created this site because of being repeatedly spammed by scam artists who promised they’d register his URL at the top 500 search engines. As he says, “there aren’t anywhere near 500 search engines, – only about a dozen major English-language search engines that generate 90% of all traffic. Plus, there are about 200 general and special purpose indexes that are useful.” NOTE: A ‘search engine’ is a database of web pages, while an ‘index’ is a database of web sites. Your listing in an index depends on what you tell them, – not what’s on your page, – as with search engines. Robert goes on to say: “So, having been quite annoyed, and given that there is nothing more dangerous than an annoyed hacker (in the original, honorable meaning of the word), I decided to build a site that would let everyone properly register their URL to all major search engines and indexes.” And he states the purpose of his site as follows: “If you want more people to visit your website, you must know how to create search-engine-friendly web pages, and then submit your URL to all the major search engines. That's what this site is all about.” The good thing about Robert Woodhead is that he’s reliable, – has a great sense of humor, – and is always upto-date with the ever-changing world of Web promotion.

Site submission in a nutshell All that is required by indexes and search engines is a onetime registration that takes about 60 minutes. And since you want to be included in as many of the 200 indexes and search engines as possible for maximum © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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exposure, – then SelfPromotion.com can really make life easy for you, – especially since Robert stays up-to-date on the new engines and indexes, as well as their ever changing protocols. SelfPromotion.com ingeniously automates the process by generating a custom form that you fill out only once. Then “Tooter” his tireless submission daemon goes around the Net and does all the typing for you, which saves you a huge amount of time. www.selfpromotion.com

Yahoo is an exception While “tooter” will automatically submit your site to a ton of places, it does not auto-submit to major indexes such as Yahoo, Open Directory or Snap. The reason is that listings in these indexes are sufficiently valuable and because of this, a hand-done, optimized submission is well worth taking the time to craft. And, thankfully, Robert, at SelfPromotion.com, conveniently provides the correct rules.

Automatic submission works fine Some will say that manually submitting your site works best. But, these are people who usually have a vested interested in doing it on your behalf for a fee. Notwithstanding the exceptions mentioned above, automatic submissions done by SelfPromotion.com are absolutely as good as manual promotion. Robert’s rule of thumb is, if “tooter” can’t do the submission as well, or better, than you could manually, then instructions will be provided on how to do it manually.


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SelfPromotion.com in a nutshell 1. Robert’s submission service is free. He calls it a “shareservice”. However, for as low as a $10 annual fee he offers “extras”, such as an “espionage” tool that analyses competitor’s sites and “multi-submit” which turbo-charges the whole process. 2. Tooter is comprehensive. It knows how to talk to all the important search engines and indexes, (and a lot of the semi-important ones) and the list is growing daily. He has even compiled a list of over 500 specialty indexes and search engines targeting particular topics and regions. 3. What I like the best is that the tedious (and important) task of submission now takes only minutes. And as you build more sites, this can really be a time saver. He’ll let you submit up to 10 sites per account. 4. And I trust the guy. There are many scam artists out there offering to do a few free submissions, – in order to get you on the hook for fees up to $500. 5. His “Secret Net Tools” have been indispensable to my growth in affiliate marketing. I recommend, – that as soon as you have opened a free account and “tested” his service by submitting your site with “tooter”, – that you return and “make a donation” to gain access to the Secret Net Tools.

Time to get “tooter” working for you Please set aside some time to review SelfPromotion.com after opening a free account. I especially suggest printing the following from the “Navigate” menu: 1. Tutorials: a. Preparing your pages for Search Engine Submission © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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b. Getting listed in Yahoo 2. Articles: a. Trends in Submission b. Glossary of Useful Terms 3. About the Site: a. How it works

Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of SelfPromotion.com.

Baby step #2: Review Google Mastery Way to go! You’ve got “tooter” on your side, so now it’s time to get Google on your side, too. To help you understand Google and how to best work with this search engine giant, I have created my Google Mastery report. Originally launched in the fall of 2004, this hour and 20 minute report has been recently updated to reflect the latest changes at Google. It’s a lifesaver and clarifies what you need to know to gain high rankings on Google. This modular audio report is broken down into 18 segments for easy retention and review – expanding on things such as “internal linking”, “anchor text” and other items we’ll be covering throughout the balance of this final Step.


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This report reflects a great deal of time and work and really helps cement your foundational knowledge of Google. And, once you understand completely how the world’s most popular search engine works, there will be no stopping you!

Take a minute now to review the Table of Contents for the report. You’re nearing the handbook and I know you’re getting excited (and I am glad). For now, however, let’s take a deep breath, grab your beverage of choice, and a note pad and pen. Go ahead and take notes – you will really want to take-in all of this information. And, it’s so, so important that you do! Table of Contents Part ONE – Mastering Google Basics 1. The History of Google – A Good Place To Start 2. Learning To Do Better Searches Makes You A Better Content Publisher 3. Work With Google – NOT Against Them © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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4. Meet Google’s Two Spiders – FreshBot And GoogleBot And Learn Why FreshBot Can Make It “Seem” Like Your Site Disappeared 5. Indexing Cycles Explained 6. Google No–No’s – Stay Away From “Search Engine Games” Or Pay the Price Of Lost Rankings Part TWO – Mastering Your Pages 1. Google Finds “Pages” Not “Sites” 2. Stemming Makes It Easier To Write Content 3. Keyword Density Review 4. Site Submission Review Part THREE – Mastering Your Links 1. Google Provides The Most Relevant Search Results Because It Factors In – Back Links (backward links) – So YOU Need To Do The Same 2. ON-Page Linking Strategies 3. OFF-Page Linking Strategies Part FOUR – Mastering Your Income 1. The Google AdSense Program Make A Lot Of “Dollars AND Cents” 2. Keep Publishing – Don’t Stop – It’s Money In The Bank 3. How Chat-Rooms Can Cost You Money 4. A Twice-a-Month “Buzz” Subscription Keeps You Inspired, Informed And Motivated -- PLUS You Get My Valuable Report On Hiring Authors For FREE!


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5. Use My Searchable Database For Answers To Common Questions

Login Panel (for Google Mastery):

www.jamesmartell.com/audio-reports/googlemastery/index.html

Username: barney Password: google Listen to this report BEFORE moving forward – trust me here. As I mentioned before, the information in this report is needed so what follows makes perfect sense. I want all of this to be crystal clear to you (which is why I wrote the report and provided it free to you). Assuming you took my advice, you just learned some pretty neat stuff – and acquired a healthy respect for the search engines, which, as you now know, have a pretty tough job. Better yet, you can now really appreciate the importance of inbound links. Which brings us to this next bit of information…

Understanding link popularity It’s estimated that Google alone indexes 10 million pages daily! That’s right. A single search engine must properly sort and rank 10 million web pages every day.


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Of course, this presents a huge challenge to its engineers who must devise algorithms that effectively prioritize these pages. In previous modules, you learned the very best techniques for optimizing your content to attract the attention of search engine spiders, – plus you learned how to do your submissions the right way. And, until very recently, that was all that was needed to win the search engine wars, as far as I knew. But, now you must do a little bit more. The reason is that Google, – along with several major search engines, – has started to “factor in” another important criteria in determining rankings. So, in addition to the optimization you have done, – the search engines also really want to know who is linking to you. As the name implies, – the term “link popularity” is a measure of how popular your page is, based on the “number” and “quality” of incoming links from other external pages on the Net! And, how important a particular page is within your site, – which is based on how many internal links are pointing to that page, – signifying THIS page is IMPORTANT….more important than the rest. Of course, your “money” pages are your Home and Product pages, – so most of the links from your Article pages (internal) and other pages on the Net (external) will “point” there. Simple really. All of the major search engines factor link popularity into their relevancy algorithms, in one form or another. As a result, – by increasing the number of links to your site, (or page) – you can dramatically improve your rankings.


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But it is also important to have “quality” links. A quality link is a link from a site (or page) that already has high link-popularity. I regularly get PageRank at Google of between 4 and 5, – on many of my pages, – which is very good. If you find a page on the Net with a similar PageRank at Google, – AND can get a link ‘back” to a Home or Product page on your site, – then a “measure” of its PageRank is conferred on your receiving page, – which boosts that page’s ranking accordingly. So, if you found a page with a PageRank of 5, – let’s say, (whether external or internal) and put a link on it to a page with a PageRank of 1, – then the PageRank of the receiving page would typically jump to 3-4 during the next indexing! I see evidence of this process all over my sites every day. So please pay close attention to the precise way that I go about this below. It could be worth a lot of money to you – but you have to learn to do this the right way.

Lineups say a lot The idea of “ranking” based on popularity is easy to grasp when thought of in human terms. A friend of mine, – who used to run dances in the 60’s, – says that although his dances always started at 8:00pm sharp, – he never opened the doors until the last minute. And that’s because the lineup, which started about 20 minutes before the doors opened, would invariably attract the attention of others driving by. Competition for attendance at dances in the 60’s was tough.


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Kids usually had several choices on any given Friday or Saturday night. Uppermost in these teenagers’ minds were thoughts like, “will the band be good?” and “will there be lots of cute girls or nice guys?” “who else is going?” What the lineup inferred was this… …. everybody’s going!

Is there a lineup to your site? Are there any links to your site? Is there a “lineup of links” pointing towards your site? Or is it being ignored.

A valid lineup to your site works, – a phony lineup doesn’t As is ever the case with the Internet, there is always a small group of technically savvy people, who will attempt to “beat the system”, so to speak. So once it got out that “link popularity” could boost rankings, – some began setting up “link farms” that would act like spiders and automatically develop huge lists of links, – which could be posted on your site for a fee. This worked until Google and the gang caught on and began banning or penalizing the offending sites.

Play by the rules and win There is a lot of misinformation about link popularity. I caution any reader to avoid spending much time in the “chat rooms” on this subject.


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That’s because people who are “guessing” are writing much of what you read there. The real secret to understanding link popularity is to recognize that these changes are simply another way for Google (and others) to improve their search results. For instance: If you have a bona fide site about automotive products, – with Product pages about leasing, parts, accessories, tools and loans, – then all you have to do is devise ways to “green flag” the spiders about the true nature of your site. There is no need to try and fool anybody with “link spamming”. Simply follow the rules I have used successfully to gain maximum rankings by organizing your internal links properly and by gathering links from external sources (as I will outline shortly). But first, I’ll develop an inbound link plan for Gas-BBQGrills.net so you can get a visual on what it takes to obtain top rankings at the search engines, – especially Google.

Baby step #3: Develop an inbound linking plan This is fairly simple and, if you just follow my lead here – and create an inbound linking plan, by watching me create one in Gas-BBQ-Grills.net, you will have a strong competitive advantage over most webmasters. As we do this, it is important to keep in mind that search engines rank pages, NOT sites. This is why it is best that we develop a separate inbound link plan for each of the Home and Product pages. What do I regularly do? Truth is that I don’t normally create a link plan for the Articles because, for the most part, they will receive their inbound links from other pages on the site. (Sit tight. I will cover this shortly when we talk about ‘internal linking’.) © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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And some Articles, - if constructed with care, - should also receive an inbound link from time-to-time from other webmasters who will link to them because of the quality of their content. (Obviously, this is just another reason to create valuable content.) Stop here and think about all of this for just a minute. I mean really think about it all. Do you see now how focusing all of your time and attention on working on the site, and ignoring or not spending enough time to gather up the required number of links, can defeat your best efforts here? If this isn’t clear to you, go over the above information once again. Now you will understand the entire business boils down to only two things: publishing quality content and arranging quality inbound links. That’s really it. Everything else is just details. And, much like it took some focused effort to get your initial home and product pages created, - it will also take focused effort to get the initial inbound links for your new site. And now that you thoroughly understand the importance of inbound links, it’s time to do a quick estimation of how many are needed.

How many inbound links do I need? In this section, I will develop an inbound linking plan for the BBQ Product page of my site. It’s the same process that I recommend you follow for each of your Home and Product pages. If you recall, back in Step 5, I walked you through the process of doing a Google backward link check. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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This gave you insight into the approximate number of inbound links required for the Primary keyword chosen for that Product page. In the case of the BBQ Product page, the Primary keyword I selected for the page is ‘gas barbecue grills’. I’ll do another backward link check for you below, - as a refresher, - so you can better understand the procedure I follow to determine how many links are needed for any one page of a site. (You will need to have downloaded the Google Toolbar to complete the next steps.) To begin, I will first do a Google search for ‘gas barbecue grills’ as shown in the screenshot below.

I then click on the site in the #1 spot, which in this case is grillsearch.com, and do a Backward Link check.


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I can see by the backward link check that the page in the number one spot in the rankings, - as shown in the screenshot above, - has a total of 42 backward links, - as shown in the screenshot below.

Upon closer evaluation of the 42 backward links, I can see that 18 of the inbound links are from pages on their own site (known as internal links), and 14 of them of from other pages on other sites on the Net (known as external links). © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I also determine by clicking through the four pages of Google results, that Google is only showing 32 of the 42 links. I told you there are anomalies with the backward link checks. ☺ But not too worry; it gives us a good place to start. And with this information, in order to compete for the #1 spot, I can begin to make some estimates based on my Google backward links check – such as, that I need at least 32 inbound links pointing to my BBQ Product page. I estimate that 14 of these links should come from pages on other sites and 18 links from within pages on my own site. That shouldn’t be too difficult.

Anchor text management Before we get into a discussion about sources and methods for creating and arranging inbound links to your site, I’ll first make a list of different anchor text links I plan to use for each of the 32 links I need for my own BBQ Product page. Definition: Anchor text is simply “the clickable text of a hyperlink,” explains Patrick Gavin, President of Text Link Ads Inc. and provider of professional search engine optimization services. This said, it’s important that you know not only how many links are needed for a particular page, - but that you also have a plan in place so you know what anchor text you plan on using. In my case, - I have determined that I need at least 18 links from pages on my own site to point to the BBQ Product page. And, - I need at least 14 links from pages on other sites to also point to my BBQ Product page. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I will use the Primary (gas barbecue grills) and Tier-1 Secondary keyword (barbecue grill) from the Product page - as the clickable anchor text links that will point back to that page. In addition to those keywords, I also like to vary it up a little so I will use a variation of the Primary (gas barbecue grill) and Tier-1 Secondary keyword (barbecue grills). I will also use this website address for the page as well: (http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/gas_barbecue_grills.html). So, in total then, I have determined that I will use five different anchor text links when arranging links back to my BBQ Product page. I know this may seem like a lot to wrap your brain around, but it really is just in the details now. And, if you listened to my Google Mastery report, this should all start making sense. Now, let’s keep moving. As you will see, I have chosen a variety of ‘anchor text’ options because it gives the BBQ Product page the opportunity to rank for multiple keywords - and so will you - if you just follow my lead. And once I gain rankings for the keywords above, I can expand the list to include other similar words such as ‘gas grill’ or ‘gas barbecue review,’ or other keywords on my list that relate to that page. See. It’s just not that hard. And, you just follow this same process for each of your own Home and Product pages. Of course, there is no exact science for this process - I may need to find a few more links – but will wait until after we see where we end up once the page has been ranked before I decide this. For now, we have selected a variety of anchor text links for each page – so it’s time to start setting up some internal links, which can be great fun. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #4: Set-up some internal links Early on, I had discovered that I could boost the ranking of selected pages with strategic internal linking. Since my sites often consisted of 100-200 pages – mostly what I call “Article” pages – I would simply provide a “backlink” within the site (from every article page) pointing to a small set of pages (product pages) reserved for merchants. Since I was more interested in high rankings for pages with merchant links (Product pages), I found I could increase the “importance” of my revenue pages with numerous links emanating from my Article pages. The strategy of linking of pages within your site is a good one - especially for those of you who are encouraged to develop content rich sites (I.e. hundreds of separate pages per site, each built around a Primary keyword) But you can improve upon my original strategy by doing three additional things: 1. Link from your Product pages to your article pages as well. Do not limit these backlinks to Product pages only. I’ve changed my strategy because article pages are now revenue generating (since the advent of the Google AdSense program). 2. Link to pages within your site that would likely seem of interest to your reader. Ie: Link some product pages to other product pages. I do this because, incredibly, the search engines now use very sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) to guess what you’re linking to. The more relevant the link – the better ranking you’ll get. A page about “gas barbecues” linking to a page about “barbecue tools” © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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would get you a lot of brownie points with a hungry search engine spider. So you should always think: what would be of most interest to my reader? Are the topics of both pages – sending and receiving – related? 3. Place a few links (two or three) within the text of the article as they would naturally occur. And be sure to use keywords as the “anchor text” for each hyperlink (see below for a typical use of keywords as anchor text within your articles). Obviously, each link goes to a related Article or Product page on this site.

NOTE: You place anchor text within the articles in addition to providing a site map or a related articles directory. Put as many as you see fit. The rule of thumb here is: Am I making it easier for visitors to get the information they want? In the case of my BBQ Product page, I have estimated that I require approximately 18 inbound links to the page from other pages on the site. To accomplish this, I will provide a “backlink” from my Home Page, three Product pages, Site Map, and 13 different Articles to the page, with each page using one of the five different anchor text links I selected earlier.


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The bottom line is that you’ll have a tremendous advantage over competing pages at the search engines if you take my advice and write – or have written – numerous, quality, on topic pages that are internally linked with intelligence. Very few other sites owners know about the power of strategic internal linking to boost rankings. But YOU do! And you know what? VERY few Internet marketers know about this concept. So please do this as I suggest. And don’t delay. As I have found out, – things can change fast on the Net.

Visit the Updates page (see page 2 of the manual) for a video tutorial of the internal link process.

Baby step #5: Setting up a Site Map A Site Map is set-up for two reasons: 1. To help visitors navigate the site 2. To provide an easy-to-follow path for the spiders so they can index the site. That little spider will see two things: 1. The name of every Article page (keyword focused, of course) © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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2. The name of every Product page (also keyword focused) I have organized many Site Maps – and each one of them is different than the other – and unique to the site. The main thing I keep in mind when creating a Site Map is that it, too, is a GREAT place to develop a neatly organized list of links to ALL pages on the site - using of course, the appropriate anchor text. I would recommend that you take some time and organize your site in a logical manner “on paper”. I also strongly encourage you to do a Google search for “site map” (in quotation marks) to see what others are doing and to design a page that is unique to you. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/site_map.html Once you have developed a site map for your site on paper, you should login to the ez-WebBuilder, click on the Add Page icon in the toolbar, and add the page.

Baby step #6: Set-up an Article Map The ez-WebBuilder has a very nice feature for organizing the Article pages for the site into a “site map” of sorts, what I call an Article Map.


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As shown in the screenshot above, the publish date appears to the left, and the hyperlinked headline and first paragraph of the article appears to the right. And if you have used the Primary keyword in the headline, - as I have above, - the anchor text link becomes another great internal link. It takes two steps to set up an Article Map in the ezWebBuilder system, beginning with the creation of the article page, and then with the addition of individual articles. I’ll begin by showing you how to set-up the Article Map page, - which begins with clicking on the Add Page icon in the toolbar.

Next, locate and click on the Articles icon within the menu that appears.

Then I add a title for the page, uncheck the ‘Check to show’ box (I add a link to the Article Map manually in my page Footer menu – more on this in the next Baby step), and then click the ‘Add Web Page’ button.


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I then format the Article Map by creating a headline and a paragraph or two that preambles the list of Articles that will be automatically displayed there each time I add one. You should now be getting into the habit of writing articles and publishing them to your site on a regular basis. Early on, you will probably be writing the bulk of your articles. If time permits, I strongly suggest you write an article or two a day. For those of you who do not have much time, write an article or two a week, or hire an author from Elance. (See Hiring Authors report) Remember that each article represents a keyword from your keyword list. There may be 50 articles to write or 300 articles to write depending on the length of your keyword report. Also remember that each article will point back to a Product page (or two or three) and might also point back to another article. Be sure to follow the standard keyword density rules and more importantly, write naturally. Now that I have successfully added an Article Map, I can add an article to the site by following a simple procedure, where I first click on the Manage Pages icon in the toolbar.

Then I locate the Article page in the index, and click on the ‘Edit’ link.


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I then click on the ‘Add Article’ tab, and add the article by carefully completing each of the fields in full.

Baby step #7: Set-up a Footer menu I encourage you to add a Footer menu to your site. Of course, I will provide an example, but I would also like you to do a little research of your own. To do this, have a look at what other site owners are doing. This will really help you to develop a Footer menu unique to your site, which is the goal here.

Remember: There are an array or problems that occur as a result of duplicating content, all of which we have detailed throughout this handbook. The examples I provide you are just that – examples. You will need to develop your own unique content, - and that goes for things such as Site Maps as well as Footer menus, too. I always take the time to think through what I want my Footer menu to look like on paper – and you really should, too. Once you have completed this small step, you can follow this next simple procedure. First, they click on the Manage Pages icon in the toolbar. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Then click on the Power Tools tab.

Next, click on the “Add a Footer to the Pages in Your Site” link.

After this, simply add and format the links for the pages you would like to show up in your Footer menu. Note: Be sure to include a link to your all important Home and Product pages and be sure to use the appropriate anchor text.

Now, you may also want to include a link to a few of your Supporting pages, as I have done in the example above.


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Note: I don’t typically “optimize” the Supporting pages, but rather label them exactly what they represent (I.e. Privacy Policy). And, I usually display the Footer menu on all pages of the site.

If you want more information on adding a Footer to your site, the ez-WebBuilder provides a great tutorial in the Help & Support area of the system – so check it out.

A link builder’s mindset Successful students of my training understand that developing inbound links to their sites is critical to building a top-ranking site. Before I get into 7 link building strategies you can follow to successfully gather up the links you need, I would like to encourage you to take on a link builder’s mindset - prior to getting started. And that is, – that you will set the time aside on an going basis and promise yourself that you will get the job done. You see, unlike many of the Steps you have already completed, which can be finished in a single sitting, link building is done incrementally over time a period of time. And as you work diligently on your own habitual link building, here are a few things you should remember to do. Start by clearing your decks, so to speak; for there is no hocus-pocus – no magic tricks here – just work and persistence Now, just focus intently on your own link building by: •

Celebrating every link you get to your site

•

Have fun


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•

Tracking your links and your progress

•

Knowing how many links you need before you get started

•

Paste a tracking sheet on the wall next to your computer

•

Challenging yourself

•

Don’t wait to get started

Quality links from many sources In mid 2004, I started to realize that my then current method of developing inbound links for my sites, gathering “link partners” - was becoming less and less effective. It was around that time that I stumbled onto my PAD Technique, which I covered in the Google Mastery report. You see - at the time - using a single type of link building strategies, such as link partners worked very well. But the search engines were becoming far more sophisticated, - and in the same way we needed to dramatically improve the quality of our content, - it was also becoming very clear that we needed to improve our linking methods. And today, site owners who are still following old techniques - such as link partnering - are having an impossible time getting to the top of the search engine results. They don’t know why, but still continue to gather up more and more link partners, only to see no positive results. And it’s not that link partner gathering is totally dead, - it just needs to be done correctly (more on this later), - and it should only be a small part of the overall inbound link building plan. So, earlier I pointed out that that we need different types of anchor text links (I.e. gas barbecue grills or barbecue © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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grill). Now I am going to take you through 7 different linking strategies. And I am going to encourage you to pick a few of the plans, but to focus only on one strategy at a time. Note: Of all 7 strategies, the PAD Technique (Professional Article Distribution) is by far the most powerful, – and should be your main focus.

Baby step #8: Distribute a number of professionally written articles Assuming you listened to my Google Mastery report – which introduced you to my PAD technique – you already know that it includes spending money hiring a professional writer to develop the articles you would like to distribute. You can bet your bottom dollar on this, folks: my PAD Technique is the absolute best way to gather inbound links to your site. So, it’s worth mastering. And there is no better way to get this job done, as far as I am concerned. The premise is very simple: 1. Develop a quality well researched article on a topic related to your website 2. Add two or three anchor text links pointing back to the Home and Product pages of your site 3. Locate another webmaster who agrees to post the quality article on their site It’s a win-win scenario. You receive two or three quality anchor text links back to your site and the Webmaster receives a quality article for their site for free. Simple. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I would also like to point out that some students really have done well with PAD, while others have struggled. The ones that do well seem to instinctually understand a few things: 1. It’s a numbers game and they work to develop a list of 50-100 target websites 2. Quality articles are MUCH easier to distribute than crappy ones 3. When a webmaster responds to a request, it’s time to focus and do a little negotiating - because if they agree to publish one article, it is pretty easy to get them to agree to publish a couple more - especially if you create some custom content just for them 4. It is the most important job you can do because you can have the nicest site in the world, but with no inbound links, you will not gain top rankings at the search engines 5. Each PAD article only needs to be placed once but can be placed with more than one webmaster to a maximum of 3 times. If you haven’t done so already, take a minute right now to return to the Google Mastery report to download and print the “Professional Article Distribution” document as shown below. You will need this as we go forward. It’s located in Part THREE - Mastering Your Links of my Google Mastery report.


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Login Panel (for Google Mastery): www.jamesmartell.com/audio-reports/googlemastery/index.html Username: barney Password: google

Baby step #9: Set up a ‘link to us’ page The easiest, – and most overlooked, – strategy for getting other sites to link to you is to provide instructions for remote webmasters who may stumble upon your site, – and like it (for whatever reason), – and want to provide a link for their visitors to your site. This happens all the time on my sites. And this even occurs with sites that have no relation to my sites topic, – which boosts PageRank, regardless. It is truly remarkable to check the Backward Links status for some of my sites and notice than a number of new sites placed a link on their site to mine in the last month, – without even asking. So to make it even easier for them to do so, – I always place a ‘link to us’ page on my sites to ensure that I get the maximum benefit. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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You saw me do this for my BBQ site. Now you know why. The important thing to remember is that you should provide the exact anchor text for them to use in their link to you. Otherwise you risk not informing their “spider” where the link goes. As you now know, – your Primary keywords should be used as often as possible with hyperlinks. By writing text for your “link partner”, – you insure that the most appropriate “anchor text” is used. The thing you want to avoid is the scenario where a Webmaster places a link on his site about Home and Garden Directories, let’s say, – to your site about Home and Garden, – but then unknowingly hyperlinks “click here” portion. You did get a link, – which is good, – but what does “click here” tell the spider? Well, unfortunately, nothing. Whereas, – if you had taken the time to provide your Internet friend with some anchor text that was already hyperlinked for the text, “outdoor decor”, let’s say, – which you’ve written a page about, – then you would have signaled loud and clear to Google’s spider that THIS page, – which already scores high because it is linked from a Home and Garden site, – is even MORE relevant because it is about outdoor décor, – which is a popular keyword. This way you increase your link-popularity by adding more precision, – and relevancy. Obviously, since you will be posting a single set of instructions for other webmasters, you cannot get links to multiple pages. But as you will see in the example below, – I provide links to my Home and Product pages, – which, as you know, © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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features various Primary keywords and some of my best merchants. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/link_to_us.html

Baby step #10: Submit to a few article directories Over the last couple of years, a large number of ‘article directories’ have emerged on the scene. Essentially, what they are is a place for webmasters to post articles for free - so that other webmasters who may be in search of content, can grab some articles to post on their sites. It’s a great idea, and if done in moderation, can provide you with a good number of inbound links. If you take the time to hand pick a few good directories and get in the habit of submitting an article to them on a regular basis, over time you will start to see your articles appear on other sites. But, make sure you do not overdo this. Remember: You are looking to place the article in only a few select spots – you are NOT looking to mass-distribute it. Why? Because an article that is overly distributed will be ineffective if it triggers a duplicate content penalty with the search engines. For this same reason, I would also like to caution you to BEWARE of software that promises to distribute your articles to thousands of sites. This is fine if you’re looking for traffic from the visitors of those sites who may click on the link to your site in the article. But, if you’re distributing articles with the goal of obtaining top listings at the search engines, – then distributing only a few copies of each article are best. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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The process to take advantage of this strategy is very simple: 1. Research and write a quality article 2. Add 2 or 3 anchor text links pointing each one back to your Home or Product pages 3. Submit the article to a few quality directories NOTE: Submitting articles to directories is a good strategy, however it is NOT a replacement for my PAD Technique, which is to provide an article to a webmaster who agrees to publish it on their site. To locate a few good directories, the reader simply needs to do a Google search for article directories, or visit the site below for a listing of the top directories. http://www.sitepronews.com/articledirectories.html TIP: If you plan to use article directories as a strategy to develop inbound links to your site, I would suggest writing one unique article for each of the 27 article directories listed on the site above, each of course embedded with 1-3 of your carefully crafted anchor text links back to the Home and Product pages of your site. This will give you between 27 and 81 inbound links to your site. ☺

Baby step #11: Attract a few good link partners A “link partner” is simply two webmasters who agree to place the other’s links on their site – in return for the same. You actually exchange links. And this it is one of the oldest methods of gathering inbound links to a site. In the past, many affiliates, myself included, spent a great deal of time looking for sites that would be good candidates for a link exchange.


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Once we found one, we would send an email to the Webmaster and make a reciprocal link request. However, because this technique has been so widely used, it is no longer an effective method of creating inbound links to a site unless it is done with great care. And, by great care, I mean that I will only exchange a link with another website if the link that I place on my “links” page benefits not only me, but my visitors as well. In other words, only if it makes sense to exchange links, will I add their link to my page. In return, I will send the Webmaster a link to my “Link to Us” page so they can select an anchor text rich link for their site. You should know that I no longer go out “looking for link partners;” however, I do make it clear on my sites that I will exchange links with other related sites – and I make it very easy for them to approach me. And there are enough other Webmasters out there still looking for link partners – which is why this is a good strategy for attracting inbound links. All of this said – you should be very particular in choosing which websites you link to. I would also suggest that you keep the inbound links from link partners to around 25% (or less) of the overall inbound link mix for your site. It takes just two steps to set up a “Links” page in the ezWebBuilder system – starting with the creation of the links page, and then with the addition of individual link partners. I’ll begin by showing you how to set-up the Links page, which begins with a click on the Add Page icon in the toolbar.


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Next, locate and click on the Links icon.

Then click on the ‘Add Page’ tab, enter a title for the page, uncheck the ’Check to show’ box and then press the ‘Add Web Page’ button.

Next, add a headline and a one or two paragraph preamble to the page, and then click ‘Save’. See sample: http://www.gas-bbq-grills.net/links.html Once that’s done, I return to the Links page, and click on the Add Link tab each time I want to add a new link partner.

In addition to adding link partners to the Links page, I will also list any other sites that I feel will be beneficial to my visitor.


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Baby step #12: Submit your site to a few paid directories All of the inbound link-building strategies I have discussed thus far are free methods of building inbound links to a site. These are great starting points, but once the money begins to roll in, you should strongly consider investing some of your earnings into increasing the number of inbound links to the site. And, although it is definitely not necessary to spend money to gather inbound links, – for those who do have a bit of a budget for doing so, you may want to consider a few of the upcoming strategies right away to simplify and speed up the process. One strategy for increasing the number of inbound links to a site is to seek out search engine directories, such as those listed below, – and pay the submission fee to have your site listed. http://www.clush.com http://www.goguides.org

Baby step #13: Considering buying a few links While on this train of thought, I should also point out that a number of companies will also sell you an inbound link or rent them to you for a monthly fee. I have found both strategies quite effective. And, of course, the more links you buy, the better the price. I would suggest that if you plan on purchasing links either now, or with some of your future revenue, - that you limit your total link purchase to around 25% of your inbound linking mix.


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If you would like to give this strategy a try, I recommend the Permanent Links program offered by www.textlinkbrokers.com. Give them a call, or make your purchase online.

Baby step #14: Distribute a press release Press releases are great tools – and every Webmaster should know how to write and distribute these. Doing so correctly will help your site achieve higher rankings with the search engines. They also provide opportunities for inbound link development when Google or any of the other search engines list the press release information online. Additionally, you are providing relevant information to those searching for news related to your industry. And you are ensuring your site is better represented in the search results. What’s more, you may very well get “coverage” on hundreds of relevant websites that subscribe to PRWeb (which I talk about in a few paragraphs, so just stick with me here) and its RSS feeds – and there is nothing better! Websites will pick up your press release and you can even “archive” these on your own site for long-term link value. Combined, all of these press release “bonuses,” if you will, add up to a very powerful punch – ultimately increasing the relevant traffic to your site. The truth is that crafting a press release that gets such results isn’t difficult at all. And, I am going to show you how to do this, and keep in mind you can do a Google search for “how to write a press release” to find a number of other easy to follow tutorials. (or an Elance writer would love to do it for you)


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But before we go there, let’s touch on how we are going to send our press release out to the World Wide Web. I recommend you take a minute now and check out http://www.prweb.com

As you will see, you can register for free by providing a user name and password on the left hand side of the page. Once you have done this, take a site tour. I suggest you read press releases posted both on the homepage and in the archives (the tab for this is on the top of the homepage). This will show you how others are writing press releases. You can choose to read only the press releases that are related to your industry AND you can set up your account so you receive these every day – delivered right to your Inbox – for free. All you have to do is read these when they come in. You will learn more about your industry, about what your competitors are doing, about what works and what doesn’t


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– all of which you can use to keep your visitors informed. And, remember, that is your goal! Of course, you can also see how press releases are written. In fact, PRWeb now offers a “Free Webinar” that shows the basics of how the organization works, provides great press release writing tips and shows exactly how quick and easy the distribution process is – for anyone! When you’re ready, register for this Free Webinar! Trust me, here - you’ll be glad you did. And, in the meantime, I have provided a few notes on writing a press release to give you an idea of just how simple this process is: •

Use a catchy headline and make sure to incorporate your Primary keywords

•

Tell the summary of the press release in the very first paragraph

•

Use the body of the press release (the next few paragraphs following the first paragraph) to “bottleneck” – which is really nothing more than clearly and concisely elaborating on the first paragraph

•

Sprinkle the press release with keywords AND 2 or 3 links to your pages

•

And much like sales letters for your website, the press release should provide a solution. With this in mind, it is always beneficial to write with the readers “problem” in mind

•

Don’t forget to share with the reader how and why you are credible and are a reliable source for the information conveyed in your press release

•

A press release can be friendly, but above all else, it should be written in a crisp business format

•

Stick to the point


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•

Your press release should end with a closing that includes a call to action (when applicable) and the closing should be an “About Us” paragraph

•

Try to keep the press between 400 and 500 words (The press release example that follows was written by a professional writer who regularly writes press releases for a variety of clients and news distribution services. When writing one yourself, which is easy to do, keep it short and sweet. The following example gives you a good idea of how to write and format a release and does a good job of conveying the tone and style you should use.)

•

Do not use hype or come across as trying to sale. Instead, convey valuable, usable information - this more than does the trick. And, anything that sounds pushy, has too much hype, or appears to be going for the hard sale, will not be picked up. It’s just that simple.

There are samples of these on the PRWeb site, – as well as instructions for distributing your press release. It is important you review these, as writing press releases and distributing them via the Net will provide you with huge returns. As an example of a press release, I have provided one that a professional writer wrote for my upcoming BootCamp – I hope to see you there. James Martell Shows BootCamp Attendees How To Cash-In On Online Shopping Trend – From His Hometown Las Vegas, NV, March 27, 2006 – Competition in the arena of affiliate marketing is fierce. Few successful affiliate marketers share their closely guarded secrets and even fewer encourage others to join in on this lucrative, home-based business, or are willing to show affiliate marketing “newbies” how they, too, can cash-in on the growing online shopping trend. All of that’s about to change. James Martell, world-renowned affiliate marketing pioneer and one of the Web’s most respected leaders, is offering a three-day, one-on-one training, or Affiliate Marketing BootCamp, as he calls it.


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Slated for June 4th, 5th and 6th 2006, on Canada’s beautiful west coast, this training is sure to be as unique as Martell himself, with results as strong as his unparalleled online success. Targeted to new and experienced affiliate marketers alike, or for those who already have Martell’s recently refreshed “Affiliate Marketing Handbook 2006, - THIRD EDITION” (http://www.work-at-home-netguides.com) and are looking for the extra push they need to get up and running, Martell’s BootCamp packs years of his personal research, development, and experiences into just three days, making it an invaluable investment. “More and more people are looking to work from home, where they can set their own hours, their own pace, and their own personal and financial goals,” Martell explains. “This BootCamp is as much for them as it is for the individual who has dabbled in affiliate marketing and may be floundering or perhaps just procrastinating. “This BootCamp is about learning and about finally achieving, hopefully even exceeding, personal and financial goals, just as I have done.” Attendees can expect Martell, who has expertly tapped into more than 60 different industries and boats nearly 100 specialty shopping sites via the Web, to show exactly how to: •

Research Topics

•

Work with Web Publishing Software

•

Choose Templates

•

Plan Site Maps

•

Develop Keyword Lists

•

Use His Keyword Density Formula

•

Choose Merchants

•

Submit to Search Engines & Directories

•

Work with Authors on Elance

•

Arrange Quality Inbound Links

•

Monitor Traffic

•

Manage Site(s)

•

Adjust to Online Change

•

And much more

Martell’s BootCamp will be kicked off with a reception at the sprawling Martell home, where attendees will meet James’ business partner and wife, Arlene, and have a chance to discuss with the couple exactly how they have carved out enviable success as affiliate marketers.


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And, because Martell feels strongly about family time and family involvement, he is offering a 50% discount on BootCamp fees to all enrolling spouses. What’s more, all meals during the conference are on Martell and include a dining experience at his favorite local restaurant, making this a truly one-of-a-kind experience. For more information about Martell’s Affiliate Marketing BootCamp, go to http://www.affiliate-marketers-bootcamp.com/ About James Martell: (http://www.jamesmartell.com/) James Martell resides with his wife Arlene and four children Adam, Justin, Shelby and Victoria in White Rock, B.C., a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. Although a carpenter by trade, James has been in business for himself most of his adult life. Immediately before his foray into website publishing in 1999, he owned and operated two successful telecom services in the Vancouver area; one was an innovative idea that used a simple voicemail platform to offer extended-local-calling for a flat fee instead of the usual per-minute rates charged by the local phone company and the other service offered residents of Vancouver a series of telephone-based information hotlines, such as Movie Listings, Winning Lotto numbers and Road Reports. Finally he discovered the lucrative world of Affiliate Marketing from an associate who was doing well offering consumers free ISP accounts. Eager for similar success, James built his first website with FrontPage using the “know how” his friend taught him. Soon he was getting a staggering 5,000+ visitors a day through natural search results at the major search engines. Within six-months he branched out with four additional sites, providing an excellent monthly income similar to his former traditional business, while working from home, setting his own hours and finally enjoying the financial freedom and time with his family he desired. After first teaching a few of his friends the basic rules he formulated and then seeing them succeed, too, James launched workshops to train others. The success of his teachings led him to release a downloadable training version of the live classes, the original James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook, which now, three years later, has been revised and updated to become the most comprehensive handbook available today. (http://www.work-at-home-netguides.com) About Net Guides Publishing Inc.: (http://www.work-at-home-netguides.com/) Located in Las Vegas, NV, Net Guides US corporate headquarters is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Founded in 2002, Net Guides currently boasts nearly 100 specialty shopping sites spanning across more than 60 industries. Net Guides publishes the “Affiliate Marketers Handbook” and the respected twice-monthly audio newsletter, called the “Affiliate Buzz” and employs freelance writers from around the world.


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TIP: If you plan to use press release submission as a strategy to develop inbound links to your site, I would recommend that you begin with one, and then consistently distribute a new one each month.

Baby step #15: Pay-per-click search engines are another option Another area that will cost you for traffic is what is known as “pay-per-click” services. Essentially, this means you “bid” on keywords and pay a fee, – anywhere from a nickel on up to several dollars for every “click-thru” to your site. You simply put money into your account, – let’s say fifty bucks, – which gets used up as people visit your site. It’s not a bad way to go when you want to quickly measure conversion rates or accelerate traffic in the beginning. Long-time students and buzz listeners know I get nearly all my traffic by earning my way to the top of the natural search results. And my feeling is if you can get the traffic for free, why pay for it? And although I have dabbled in the area of paid search, I have been too busy with my natural search business to really dig in. I have also been around long enough to learn that there is a lot of potential with buying traffic. And I have also heard the stories of those who have lost a lot of money as well. I don’t plan on being one of them. And I have heard the stories, – many from students of mine who have generated great incomes using paid search


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techniques they had either developed themselves or by studying the teachings of others. That is definitely more my style. Enter Ed Keay-Smith, a reader of mine, and a valued associate from Perth Australia, who I met at CJU 2005. While at CJU, Ed introduced himself, and told me he was on a “break-ation” with his wife Lois and his daughter Sasha, – who were eagerly awaiting the end of the conference, because they were all heading to Disneyland afterward. During the conference, Ed shared with me his success with paid search, – and more particularly Google AdWords, and offered to give me some assistance in this area. He also gave me a nice software tool that he uses (and that I believe he had developed) to prepare his own keywords for his search campaigns. After the conference, Arlene and I headed for home, and Ed and his family headed for Disneyland. Upon his return to Perth, Ed emailed me and again offered his assistance.


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It wasn’t until a few months later that I took him up on his offer and had him walk me through the process of setting up an AdWords simple Google campaign for one of my new sites. At the time, I had few small campaigns running. Nothing to right home about, that’s for sure. After a short discussion he agreed to take one of my campaigns to “see if he could improve upon it”. He did, – actually quite dramatically. It was after seeing this improvement, which translated to additional profits for my site, – I decided to ask Ed if he would put together a special report for those readers of © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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mine, who wanted to learn how to supplement their natural search results, by purchasing some additional traffic from Google AdWords. He did, – and I am pleased to be able to make it available to you at no cost. It’s a great resources, and one that should help you bring additional profits to your site. Here’s what one reader recently said:

I suggest you learn more about this from Ed - and buy a little traffic in the beginning, just to get you started. Admittedly, your first “traffic” is a thrilling thing to experience and Ed is THE guy to help you here! You can access and download this free 42-page report titled; “How to Use Google AdWords Advertising to Increase the Number of Targeted Visitors to Your Web Site” on my password protected updates page. (See page 2 of this manual for login instructions.)


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You can also join Ed’s newsletter for additional tips and hints and download a copy of his FREE Google AdWords AdWrapper software by visiting his site. www.adwordsmarketing.com

Baby step #16: Add your counter One of my great pastimes these days is going online to check my traffic stats. Until recently, this type of tracking would have required very costly technical help to set up. But, thankfully, – there are now companies who will provide fabulous back-end functionality - at a very low cost. Although they are known as ‘counters’, – they do much more than just count total visitors.


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By getting “real time” data on how each of your pages are doing on the Net, – you will definitely be in the drivers seat - and be able to make modifications with confidence.

Some of what a ‘counter’ does 1. Shows where your site visitors are coming from 2. Reveals what keywords your visitors use to find you 3. Generates multiple graphs for easy analysis

30-day free trial You simply install a small piece of code on all the site pages you wish to track. Then, each time a visitor accesses a page, the ‘counter’ is able to collect statistical information about your visitors. These statistics are available to you in real time, 24-hoursa-day, from any Web browser. And knowing where your traffic is coming from is critical to your success, – so don’t skip this all-important step.

Adding it to your website Just follow instructions by completing the form (see screenshot below).


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To sign up and download go to: www.Stat-Dragon.com, click on the ‘Try it out for FREE with our free 30 day trial.

Next, I would recommend selecting the Bronze Plan, by clicking on the free trial button.

At this point, you are moved through to the PayPal checkout, where you can subscribe for $0.00 for the first month.

If you followed my lead in Step #1 – How To Get And Stay Organized, you already have a PayPal account, so now just simply login. If you skipped that step, you will want to complete the form provided to complete the process so you can use your credit card.


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During the sign-up process, I take note of the Subscription Details: Your subscription will automatically renew at the rates stated above, unless you cancel prior to the end of the billing period. And clicked through to complete my purchase.

Next, I enter my email address, select a username and password, and click Submit to login to my new account.

OK, I am in. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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I simply click add a site link as instructed.

Next, I enter the URL for my website in the field provided, and click the Get Code button to automatically generate the StatsDragon tracking code for Gas-BBQ-Grills.net. I copy the tracking code (Ctrl A = highlight, then Ctrl C = Copy), and login to my ez-WebBuilder account, and click on ‘Manage Pages’.

Then I click on the Power Tools tab.

And then the Add Tracking Code to Your Pages.

And, lastly, paste your Stats Dragon Code in the field provided, click ‘Save’, and then select the Tracking Code check box.


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And we’re done. Now to check my stats, I simply login to my account, using my username and password.

http://www.stats-dragon.com/login.php

Baby step #17 Complete the checklist for Step #8 At this point, prior to moving on to section, I would suggest taking a moment and placing a checkmark beside the steps you have completed to date. Baby step #1 – Submit your site to all the major search engines © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Baby step #2 – Review Google Mastery Baby step #3 – Develop an inbound linking plan Baby step #4 – Set-up some internal links Baby step #5 – Set-up a Site Map Baby step #6 – Set-up an Article Map Baby step #7 – Set-up a Footer menu Baby step #8 – Distribute a number of professionally written articles Baby step #9 – Set up a ‘link to us’ page Baby step #10 – Submit to a few article directories Baby step #11 – Attract a few good link partners Baby step #12 – Submit your site to a few paid directories Baby step #13 – Considering buying a few links Baby step #14 – Distribute a press release Baby step #15 – Pay-per-click search engines are another option Baby step #16 – Add your counter Baby step #17 – Complete this checklist

Once you have… … submitted your site to the major search engines, reviewed my Google Mastery report, have a good understanding of Link Popularity, created a linking plan for your site, begun the process of writing and continually adding Articles and linking them strategically to your Home and Product pages, created a site map, begun to gather inbound links using the PAD technique, added “link to us” and © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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“link” pages, considered purchasing a few links, and added a traffic analysis counter. …then you have finished your training and are ready to begin your new career on the Internet with a very good chance of succeeding!


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S Su um mm miin ng g IItt U p Up Congratulations on joining an elite group of people! Those with the “know-how” to successfully publish to the Net are few and far between. So, if you’ve been diligent, and followed the steps I’ve outlined in this manual, -- then you may want to give yourself a hearty pat on the back! THIS, my friend, could be the beginning of something HUGE for you, because the Internet is still in its infancy. And, I’m extremely pleased that you chose my manual as a guidebook to help you learn the ropes and prosper as an affiliated publisher for some great companies. Here’s a review of what you’ve accomplished:

Step-1 – How to Get (and Stay) Organized Your workspace was equipped with the physical resources needed to run your business and you acquired a basic set of software tools and procedures to assist you in better managing important details.

Step-2 – Finding the Right Topic for You You went on a “treasure hunt” created your BIG list of topic ideas and learned about Google and sponsored link programs. You also narrowed your BIG list down and found relevant advertisers with good affiliate programs least three possible industries that offered from 3-6 good affiliate programs. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Summing It Up

Step-3 – Keywords are the Building Blocks You developed a keyword list of approximately 50-300 (or more) words for each of the three possible industries you selected and made your first visit to WordTracker.

Step-4 – Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose your Template You were introduced to an alternative to FrontPage, and began the construction of your very own website.

Step-5 – Building Winning Websites You took a behind-the-scenes look at website navigation content development and page optimization. You learned my approach to site navigation and learned how to build product pages that are profitable.

Step-6 – Add Keyword Focused Content You learned how to write high-quality, valuable copy for your own site, and how to hire professional writers (on the cheap) via Elance, an online freelance service that I regularly use myself. You learned my rules for keywords and keyword variations and how to communicate with a writer and provide her/him with “project specs.”

Step-7 – Affiliate Programs + AdSense = Profits You learned about increasing your revenue with Google AdSense and I shared with you a simple code that you can use to triple your income.


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Summing It Up

Step-8 – Building Traffic from Multiple Sources You discovered how to increase site traffic and were introduced to my Google Mastery Report, as well as my PAD technique. And, you learned about a friend of mine who submits sites to all the major search engines for you. You also learned about inbound links and we developed a plan for creating inbound links for your site.

Now it’s up to you to manage your business for growth The biggest challenge facing you now is staying up-to-date without getting sidetracked. At the back of this manual, I’ve provided a list of reliable resources that have guided me as I’ve attempted to sort out what makes sense and what doesn’t. Hopefully, you too, will find a way to prosper on the Net as I have done. A recent Nielsen survey estimated that 8% of the planet’s households currently have Internet access from home. That’s half a BILLION surfing the Net from home! Hopefully, some of them will find your site. Good luck to you! Regards,

James Martell, Net Guides Publishing Inc.


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R Reeccoom mm meen nd deed dR urrcceess Reessoou For convenience we’ve added this “Recommended Resources area listing all websites mentioned throughout this manual.

Affiliate networks: 1. CJ.com - The grand daddy of commission networks is Commission Junction. Choose from thousands of merchant in hundreds of industries. 2. LinkShare.com - Representing more than 500+ merchants, LinkShare has emerged as one of the top affiliate programs on the Net. 3. ShareaSale.com – Affiliate network providing payper-sale, pay-per-lead and pay-per-click programs. 4. LinkConnector.com – An affiliate marketing network that helps merchants and affiliates increase online sales through increased traffic. Link Connector provides additional revenue opportunities and helps affiliates locate optimal promotions for their sites. 5. JohnsonLane.com - Primary a provider of financially based merchants programs including credit cards, mortgages, credit services, etc. © 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.

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Recommended Resources

6. ClickBank.com - Offering a variety of merchants in the areas of software, ebooks and other electronic, downloaded product and services. 7. QuinStreet.com - A smaller affiliate/merchant exchange featuring a few dozen merchants. They offer quality products and services. 8. DirectLeads.com – Growing quite rapidly DirectLeads represents hundreds of merchants. Easy interface and good commissions.

Search engines resources: 9. SearchEngineForums.com – As you begin to work through the traffic building process, questions about the search engines will arise. The site offers individual forums for all of the major search engines. 10. SearchEngine-News.com – Another piece to the search engine puzzle is keeping on top of their ongoing evolution and changes. To do so, I recommend the “The UnFair Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars” training guide with monthly updates.


363

A Ap pp peen nd diixx ooff W heeeettss Woorrkkssh 1. BIG List 2. Product Page Optimization Chart 3. Article Page Optimization Chart 4. Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart 5. Article Keyword Chart

© 2002-2006 Net Guides Publishing Inc. - All Rights Reserved

364

Appendix of Worksheets

Big List BIG List


365


Home & Product Page Optimization Chart Home & Product Page Optimization Chart Merchant Category:

Best Merchants: File Name:

_____________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ /______________________.html (or .htm)

Navigation Bar Button:

_____________________________________________

Footer Menu Name:

_____________________________________________

Primary Keyword:

_____________________________________________

Tier-1 Secondary Keywords:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________


______________________________________________ ______________________________________________

Keyword Variations:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Keyword Meta-tags:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Alt-tag:

_____________________________________________

Title-tag:

______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ (Note: Develop a title tag include primary & tier 1 keywords. Not to exceed 64 characters)

Page Description:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ (Note: Develop an accurate 20-30 word page description. Include primary & tier-1-2 keywords.)

Heading 1 (H1):

_____________________________________________

Heading 2 (H2):

_____________________________________________


366


Article Page Optimization Chart Article Page Optimization Chart File Name:

/______________________.html (or .htm)

Primary Keyword:

_____________________________________________


_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________


_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Keyword Variations:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Keyword Meta-tags:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Alt-tag:

_____________________________________________

Title-tag:

______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ (Note: Develop a title tag include primary & tier 1 keywords. Not to exceed 64 characters)

Page Description:

______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ (Note: Develop an accurate 20-30 word page description. Include primary & tier-1-2 keywords.)

Heading 1 (H1):

_____________________________________________

Heading 2 (H2):

_____________________________________________

Content (250-300 words):

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________


367

Navigation Bar Name

© 2002-2005 Net Guides Publishing - All Rights Reserved

Product Page #8:

Product Page #7:

Product Page #6:

Product Page #5:

Product Page #4:

Product Page #3:

Product Page #2:

Product Page #1:

Product Pages

Primary Keyword

Keyword and Merchant Chart

Tier-one Secondary Keywords

Tier-2 Secondary Keywords Keyword Variations

Best Merchants

Merchant Category

368

Keyword and Merchant Chart

Primary Keyword


Product Page #8:

Product Page #7:

Product Page #6:

Product Page #5:

Product Page #4:

Product Page #3:

Product Page #2:

Product Page #1:

Page Names

Article Keyword Chart

Tier-one Secondary Keywords Tier-one Secondary Keywords

Keyword Variations

369

Article Keyword Chart

IIn nd deexx A Acrobat Reader, 30 ad copy, 37 Adobe, 30, 31, 32 AdSense, 79, 80, 265, 291, 293, 294, 295, 297, 298, 302 advertisers, 16, 18, 19, 29, 42, 49, 50, 62, 64, 65, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 88, 89, 127, 188, 203, 206, 209, 210, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 274, 278, 305 advertising programs, 70 affiliate, ii, 4, 6, 7, 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 33, 34, 36, 49, 59, 60, 61, 64, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 87, 89, 115, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 160, 161, 167, 169, 179, 217, 218, 219, 263, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 274, 275, 284, 286, 291, 305, 308, 311, 347, 348, 349, 362, 363, 365, 366 Affiliate Fuel, 16 affiliate manager, 75 Affiliate Manager, 217 Affiliate Marketing, 6, 15, 20, 46, 47, 347, 348, 349 affiliate networks, 167 Affiliate Organizer, 42, 43, 58, 140 Affiliate Summit, 45 affiliate website, 17 affiliated publishers, 16, 18, 161 affiliates, 6, 8, 15, 16, 20, 29, 40, 76, 87, 160, 217, 218, 340 algorithm, 94 algorithms, 169, 185, 316 Alt tags, 163, 204, 246 Amazon.com, 15, 166, 168, 270 animated banners, 272, 273 Article Map, 328, 329, 330, 360 article page, 153, 156, 325, 329 Article page, 161, 254, 327, 330 Associate Programs, 291 automated submission tool, 309

B backward link check, 320, 321, 322 backward links, 169, 175, 178, 314, 322, 323 Backward Links, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 183, 184, 185, 337 Backward Links check, 170, 171, 174, 183, 184, 185 Backwards Link, 164 Better Business Bureau, 77, 216

BIG list, 72, 74, 126 Blog, 293 Book n’ Buzz, 240 buzz, ii, 3, 13, 34, 35, 36, 240, 350

C choosing a topic, 59, 62, 63, 83, 128 ClickBank, 16, 366 ClixGalore, 16 code, 15, 43, 115, 116, 158, 165, 265, 284, 285, 289, 292, 297, 299, 301, 302, 303, 305, 355, 358 commission, 15, 16, 21, 37, 38, 49, 65, 71, 74, 75, 78, 79, 86, 119, 155, 160, 166, 276, 277, 365 Commission Junction, 16, 275, 305, 365 Commission Junction University, 208 Commission Rates, 74 content, i, 4, 10, 23, 65, 79, 93, 103, 105, 112, 123, 128, 149, 152, 154, 159, 160, 165, 167, 178, 187, 200, 202, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 214, 216, 217, 220, 223, 224, 225, 232, 236, 239, 241, 252, 253, 254, 255, 259, 262, 263, 264, 272, 273, 281, 282, 283, 286, 289, 290, 298, 316, 320, 325, 331, 334, 336, 339, 363 conversion rates, 19, 350 cookie, 16, 75 Corporation, 55 creative, 49, 64, 75, 127, 149, 228, 273, 305

D Domain Maniac, 136, 140, 142 domain name, 40, 41, 42, 90, 91, 125, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 146, 201, 202, 203, 267 Dreamweaver, 38

E eBay, 16, 17 Elance, 239, 240, 262, 330, 344, 348 Explorer, 46, 54 ez-WebBuilder, 141, 143, 144, 150, 163, 165, 191, 192, 201, 241, 244, 245, 247, 257, 260, 261, 262, 263, 279, 284, 285, 286, 287, 295, 299, 300, 303, 328, 329, 333, 341, 358


Index

F Fast Creative Inc., 114, 124 fonts, 241, 304 Footer menu, 329, 331, 332, 333, 360 freelance copywriters, 62 freelance writer, 223, 224, 240 FrontPage, 2, 12, 38, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123, 124, 349

G Gmail, 47, 48, 50, 119 Google, 3, 4, 7, 9, 32, 37, 38, 47, 48, 61, 70, 71, 72, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 89, 91, 103, 108, 110, 119, 127, 128, 135, 164, 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 183, 184, 189, 203, 206, 234, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 263, 265, 266, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 295, 296, 297, 300, 302, 305, 307, 308, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 323, 325, 328, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 340, 344, 351, 352, 353, 354, 360 Google AdSense, 4, 61, 79, 80, 119, 263, 265, 266, 288, 289, 291, 292, 295, 300, 302, 305, 314, 325 Google Mastery report, 288, 289, 312, 324 Google toolbar, 171 graphics, 115, 119, 120, 121, 145, 163, 194, 199, 260, 262, 264, 272

J James Martell’s Affiliate Buzz, i JavaScript, 289, 292, 301, 302

K keyword density, 161, 165, 186, 207, 233, 238, 239, 240, 330 keyword list, 64, 90, 101, 104, 108, 113, 126, 127, 131, 132, 133, 152, 153, 154, 159, 160, 164, 177, 179, 180, 181, 184, 187, 203, 213, 219, 220, 224, 233, 236, 254, 290, 330, 363 keyword lists, 42, 97, 98, 112, 125, 130, 154, 179, 180, 181 keyword phrase, 110, 131, 133, 184, 185, 213 keyword phrases, 96, 131, 213 keyword research, 88, 168 Keyword Variations, 162, 186, 227, 234, 236, 237, 287, 369, 370, 371, 372 keywords, 4, 64, 88, 90, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 112, 126, 127, 133, 135, 148, 152, 154, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 170, 179, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 203, 204, 205, 211, 213, 214, 220, 227, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 239, 241, 250, 254, 264, 271, 286, 324, 326, 338, 339, 346, 350, 351, 355, 369, 370

H L header graphic, 142, 145, 193, 198, 199, 200, 203 headline, 148, 152, 161, 163, 186, 203, 204, 226, 233, 239, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 295, 303, 329, 330, 342, 346 headlines, 132, 158, 241 Hiring Authors report, ii, 36, 221, 239, 330 Hiring Authors Report, ii HTML, 114, 115, 116, 132, 158, 161, 162, 163, 165, 185, 189, 246, 248, 249, 265, 278, 279, 284, 303, 305 hyperlinked keyword, 153

I inbound link development, 344 inbound linking plan, 319, 320, 360 internal links, 154, 155, 158, 170, 195, 316, 319, 322, 324, 325, 360 Internet publishers, 76, 289 ISP, 2, 6, 27, 129, 349

Link Connector, 16 link partner, 334, 338, 340, 342 link popularity, 90, 315, 316, 318, 319 link-popularity, 103, 132, 158, 169, 172, 283, 317, 338 LinkShare, 16, 71, 365

M media releases, 259 merchant, 16, 18, 37, 38, 40, 49, 50, 75, 87, 106, 125, 127, 129, 148, 155, 161, 163, 164, 168, 179, 180, 187, 189, 204, 215, 216, 217, 224, 237, 252, 261, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 287, 289, 291, 292, 325, 365, 366 merchants, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, 29, 37, 64, 75, 77, 78, 106, 119, 125, 126, 127, 130, 134, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 160, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 181, 188, 189, 202, 203, 214, 256, 264, 270, 271, 274, 275, 276, 277, 279, 286, 287, 288, 290, 325, 339, 365, 366 Meta tags, 162


371

Index

meta-description, 250 meta-keywords, 250 MSN, 91

N natural writing, 211, 233, 238, 239, 243 navigation bar, 148, 152, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 163, 164, 165, 168, 180, 188, 193, 194, 200, 203 Navigation Bar, 188, 192, 196, 203, 369, 371 navigation bar buttons, 163 Netshops, 16, 275, 279

O online publisher, 43, 126, 150, 207, 211 optimization process, 241, 246 optimization rules, 241 optimized, 152, 153, 154, 159, 160, 161, 172, 182, 183, 185, 187, 310 Outgoing Link, 177 Outlook Express, 47 Overture, 83, 84, 89, 127

P PAD, 178, 307, 334, 335, 336, 340, 360 Page description, 162, 204, 246 page optimization, 148, 149, 176, 185, 204 PageRank, 7, 164, 165, 166, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 177, 178, 183, 184, 185, 189, 193, 203, 270, 274, 289, 317, 337, 367 PageRank Penalty, 7 PageRank score, 189 paid search techniques, 351 pay-for-performance model, 15, 160 payment rates, 16 PayPal, 54, 58, 356 pay-per-click, 288, 289, 291, 350 PDF file, 30 press release, 259, 344, 345, 346, 347, 350, 360 press releases, 155, 157, 259, 345, 346, 347 Press releases, 344 primary keyword, 105, 131, 148, 152, 154, 165, 204, 241, 246 Primary keyword, 148, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170, 180, 182, 185, 186, 204, 227, 239, 246, 247, 283, 321, 325, 329 Primary Keyword, 148, 161, 183, 184, 185, 186, 204, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 235, 236, 237, 246, 253, 254, 369, 370, 371, 372 product page, 148, 152, 153, 154, 156, 161, 164, 165, 176, 180, 181, 193, 202, 244, 251, 274

Product page, 148, 161, 203, 204, 248, 253, 254, 270, 271, 274, 276, 278, 279, 281, 285, 287, 300, 304, 305, 317, 320, 321, 323, 324, 326, 328, 330 Product Page buttons, 194 product pages, 152, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 160, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 184, 196, 197, 203, 220, 221, 222, 224, 227, 257, 258, 261, 263, 266, 271, 287, 288, 294, 320, 325 PRWeb, 344, 346, 347 publishing tool, 12, 38

R rankings, 18, 28, 93, 94, 102, 118, 120, 137, 170, 173, 178, 245, 286, 312, 316, 318, 319, 322, 324, 325, 327, 336, 344, 364 RoboForm, 53 royalty free photos, 262

S search campaigns, 351 search engine, 9, 18, 19, 90, 91, 92, 93, 96, 110, 117, 133, 137, 138, 153, 161, 173, 175, 177, 181, 185, 245, 286, 309, 312, 313, 315, 316, 323, 326, 334, 343, 366 search engine visitors, 153 search engines, 2, 20, 23, 28, 64, 91, 92, 93, 102, 104, 105, 107, 108, 118, 130, 133, 135, 137, 150, 154, 157, 162, 169, 172, 183, 202, 205, 211, 212, 213, 253, 255, 264, 307, 308, 309, 311, 315, 316, 319, 325, 327, 334, 336, 339, 344, 349, 350, 359, 360, 363, 366 secure site guarantees, 216 SelfPromotion.com, 308, 310, 311 ShareaSale, 16, 71, 365 Shelby Cobra, 44, 68 simple text link, 273 Site Map, 326, 327, 328, 360 spammers, 137, 138 spider food, 93, 159, 185, 246 spiders, 93, 94, 120, 132, 133, 153, 155, 160, 161, 169, 186, 194, 232, 248, 316, 318, 319, 327 sponsored link, 70, 79, 81, 115, 173, 265, 266, 291, 292, 305, 308 sponsored link programs, 70, 79, 115, 308 start page, 44, 45, 46, 58 Stats Dragon, 358 strategic internal linking, 325, 327 sub-headline, 148, 161, 204, 248, 249

T target audience, 62, 64, 67, 69, 75 taxes, 55


372

Index

template, 54, 114, 122, 124, 125, 131, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150, 155, 158, 191, 192, 198, 203, 241, 244, 246, 253, 299, 363 template designs, 131, 141 templates, 38, 119, 120, 121, 124, 141, 145, 146, 194, 199 text link, 153, 278, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 286, 329 text link ad, 278, 280, 284, 286 Text Link Ads Inc., 323 Tier-1 secondary keyword, 159, 185 Tier-1 Secondary Keyword, 235, 237 Tier-1 Secondary keywords, 164, 187 Tier-1 Secondary Keywords, 162, 186, 233, 236, 254, 369, 370 tier-2 secondary keywords, 158 Tier-2 Secondary Keywords, 186, 187, 236, 237, 253, 254, 287, 369, 370, 371 title tag, 132, 182, 250, 369, 370 Title tag, 162, 204, 246, 249, 250 traffic, 2, 6, 18, 91, 92, 110, 119, 140, 164, 183, 184, 194, 272, 288, 291, 307, 309, 339, 344, 350, 353, 354, 355, 361, 366

two-tiered plan, 21

W web hosting, 116 website navigation, 149 website publishing service, 118, 122, 141 website publishing software, 115, 117, 118, 121, 122, 125 Wordtracker, 91, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113, 131, 157, 179, 180, 181 work-at-home, i, ii, 8, 11, 17, 20, 32, 288, 348, 349

Y Yahoo, 17, 83, 84, 91, 310, 312 Yahoo! Publisher Network, 83


373

The Affiliate Handbook 2006

Recommend Documents

and

opening and