Sometimes You Gotta Change Things UP

The biggest problem with being an internet marketing teacher and giving such step by step information, like I do, is your readers take you so literally.

I know everyone wants a road map. I know I wanted a road map when I was just getting started. I wanted someone to say “here do this and you’ll be successful and making money”. I RRRR wanted a list. So I could just follow the list and make money.

Hear me. Internet Marketing Does NOT work that way. I can give you a list. Hell, I have given you a list. The minute you decide you can ONLY do what’s on the list is the minute you decide to fail.

I’ve been getting some emails and comments that it’s becoming harder to find “good keywords” with the Google kw tool. That may be so. I don’t know. I don’t really use it much anymore. I know Google has made some changes to it recently and that may be part of the issue.  You’ve got two choices then… buy a tool that will help you do it, or change your strategy a little bit.

There are a million ways to make these product lenses work. I showed you one way that generally works for me. But if you go through my lenses you’ll see they aren’t all Christmas Cash Lenses. In fact, most of them aren’t. Mix it up, try new things. It’s the only way you’re going to grow as a business person. You’ve got to start learning what works for YOU, and that only happens by getting out there, trying new things, and knowing some of them will work, and some of them will be great big huge flops. Either way… you benefit.

I went through my old Micro Niche Finder Folders and found some keywords I would make lenses out of. They probably wouldn’t follow the template of a regular SCC lens ~ but they will work just the same.

I’m going to give them to you… I’d like to see you run with them. If you pick a keyword and do an original type lens with it, come back and tell me and I’ll put it through Traffic Bug for you if you don’t have it already. I want to see some of YOUR work, YOUR originality, YOUR personality.

Here’s the keywords:

Can’t wait to see what you come up with.

*** Notice ***

Kelly, a member of the KISS Club, has taken some bold action in her business. She has opened a new Quality PLR site. Her first PLR pack is up and for sale. Her prices are very reasonable and her writing is excellent.

Her first pack is related to Christmas Gifts. If you need some content maybe to use on free ad blogs, UAW, a spinner, to create a hubpage? PLR is great for all of that. Take a look and support a fellow community member.

Quality PLR Zone

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What to Do When You Can’t Use Amazon

This morning a KISS Club member told me about some of the payment issues she’s having with Amazon since she lives in Canada. She decided she no longer wanted to use Amazon as her primary affiliate network and wondered what else was available. I answered her question and we’re working together to figure out her best options, but I wanted to talk today about the alternatives to Amazon.

There are many other options, and they are a little more complicated, but they are out there.

My two favorite are Shareasale and Linkshare. I find these two to be the easiest to get around and get what I need.

To become a member of these affiliate networks you will need a website. (lenses will not count). Don’t worry ~ a free blog at blogger will count! If you’ve set up your “gift blog” at blogger that will work just fine. If you haven’t set up a free blog yet, check out this post on setting up a free blog. Once you have that blog set up you can use it on your application to the networks. (make sure you put a little bit of content on there ~ maybe 5 or 6 posts)

Once you’ve been accepted you’ll have to look around to find a merchant (store that sells the product) that sells what you’re looking for within the network.

In the header area of ShareaSale you’ll see a column that says Find/Join merchants:

Click on the first link to view and search merchant list.

Your next screen will bring up the options related to merchants you want to look at. Pick “pay per sale” this means when someone purchases through your link you will get a commission on the sale.

As you can see there are over 3 thousand merchants to choose from… so you should definitely be able to find something to suit your needs.

TIP: Don’t come to the affiliate networks to “look” for a product. Do your browsing for product ideas at amazon ~ or shopping.com. Come to the network when you’re ready to find the specific product you want to promote. These networks are not great for just browsing for something to promote.

You will have to apply to the program before you can use the links from the merchant ~ so if you are using these networks it may be a good idea to key in on a specific niche (products sold from the same store) so you don’t have to keep waiting to get accepted to all the merchant programs.

On the next page you’ll see a search box ~ put in a rather general term for the product you’re looking for. Ex.. for the keyword Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table I have used inversion table in the search box.  There are only two options that pop up for inversion table ~ neither of which have the product I was hoping to promote. But they do have another brand of inversion table so I would probably go in and do some additional research on that brand.

Using affiliate networks is HARDER for sure.

Here’s another option. Find a large store and become an affiliate for them.

Walmart’s affiliate program is through Linkshare

Target’s Affiliate program is through Google Affiliate network

It won’t be quite as easy as using Amazon ~ but it will be much easier having so many products all in one place.

Back to linkshare:

Once you’ve found a merchant that offers what you want to promote apply to their program. You can do that by clicking the “join this program” link

Some programs will accept you immediately ~ some will take some time. Some will accept you and some won’t. It’s all part of the process. If you don’t get accepted don’t get down on yourself. It really is just part of the process. I’ve been denied to my fair share of merchants.

Once you’ve been accepted by a merchant you want to get a link to the product. You can get to the link area by clicking get a link in the header of the page.

Once you click the first link to get link/banner you’ll have a drop down box of all the programs you are a part of. Highlight the program you want to get the link for and then click “refresh the report” (it’s over on the right hand side and easy to miss)

Your merchant will show up and then click the “get links” link to get to the link area.

Now open a new tab in your browser and go to the website of the merchant. (in this example it’s mygowns.com)

Find the specific product on their website that you want to link to.  Grab the url to that SPECIFIC product. ex: http://www.mygowns.com/beknpe.html leads to a specific below the knee petticoat.

Go back to sharesale and click the “create a custom link” tab.

When this opens there will be some spaces to fill in.

Destination url ~ that is the url you took from the merchant site to the specific product.  ex: http://www.mygowns.com/beknpe.html

That’s where you want the link you’re creating to go when someone clicks it.

Additional tracking ~ you can leave it blank or you can add something that will let you know where you’re putting this specific link (ex: sqgl ~ squidoo gown lens) it’s sometimes nice to know where you’re sales are coming from, but it’s not a deal breaker so don’t get stuck on it.

Once you’ve added that information click “create custom link”. It will pop out with a longer link that starts with shareasale.

ex: http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=250737&b=124465&m=17504&afftrack=&urllink=www%2Emygowns%2Ecom%2Fbeknpe%2Ehtml

Once you’ve created your custom link you will use it to create your anchor text links in your lenses ~ just as you would from Amazon.

Yes, it’s much more of a process, and it’s not as easy ~ but if Amazon isn’t available to you ~ it’s an option.

Christmas is coming…

If you start looking around in the “real” world you’ll see that stores are starting to gear up for the holidays. The end caps are going up, new toys on display.

If you’re looking to promote toys one great way to get in on an up and coming wave is to watch the stores. What new toys do they have prominently displayed? What toys have an entire end cap to themselves?

Have you picked up the Toys R Us big book of toys yet? An excellent place to do some research.

Lists are coming up… lists of top 10 toys for the 2010 holiday season. Worth looking at. Even if a toy has a bit lower price point than you would normally promote… if it hits big like Zhu Zhu Pets, or any of the Elmo dolls a front page ranking can make you a lot of money when people are scrambling to get their kid the toy they HAVE to have this holiday season.

I remember when I was younger… I just HAD to have a cabbage patch doll. It was the year you couldn’t find a cabbage patch doll to save your life. Even less a red headed one! Somehow my mom got her hands on one. (Man I wish I had been an internet marketer then)

Anyway… all I’m saying is start looking around. Take your cues from local stores. They have market research companies behind them telling them what’s going to be big this year. You may not find search volume for it, but sometimes those risky, wing it and see lenses can be huge payouts.

TV is another great place to get lens ideas.  You’re likely to start seeing ads for the “hot” toys now, so they can get the kids all wrapped up in having this new “IT” toy for Christmas. They have to get the kids invested now, so they can start begging and torturing their parents.

This is the same for other products ~ toys are just easiest to spot. If you watch your store displays you’ll see “hot” new grown up ideas as well. Also check infomercials ~ a great way to land yourself in a great product. It’s already well known from TV.  (Definitely check your competition on those kind of products though ~ all the searches in the world don’t mean anything if you can’t get yourself to the first page of Google)

So who’s up for a trip to the mall?

Should You Promote Low Priced Items?

Yesterday at the Kiss Club we got involved in an interesting discussion about product selection. While I generally look for products that are over $100 dollars to promote one of the members brought up the fact that your commission level is based on the number of sales made.

She asked:

Wouldn’t it make sense to promote some low priced items to make more sales and up my commission level?

Hmm… well that sounds like a pretty smart idea to me.

I did some research and then my brain started going around in circles with the possible ways to make this work.  I think that creating lenses that will give you decent commissions is smart ~ I also think it’s smart to find a way to get 6 sales to move up to a higher percentage payout. It’s giving yourself a raise!

Here’s some ideas I had:

1. If you have a blog, review something related to your blog that is a low price to get a few sales. The few sales will bump you up to the next payout level.

2. Do a lens on a small item with tons of search volume to get you up to the next level.

3. Read amazon’s blog for more ideas.

I was there today and they are some smart smart people! There are tons of ideas in just the first page of posts!

4. If you have a blog keep up to date on the specials going on at Amazon. Like this month there is a huge sale on school clothes. There is also a magazine offer going on ~ 2 years for the price of 1. You may find some great deals that are relevant to your site ~ in fact, if you’ve got lenses that are getting traffic you could go back and add something related to the special. (which makes me think I have a couple parenting lenses that the clothes thing might work well on!) These huge deals may not make you a fortune in commission, but they will help you move to the next commission level which gives you a raise with no additional work, on your low priced items, but also the high priced items you’ve been doing lenses on.

5. The Amazon blog is also an excellent place to find ideas for lenses! Did you know that Amazon sells text books? Get a syllabus and a reading list for some colleges and get started! Psych 101 ~ here’s the books. This was just one of the many many ideas that popped into my head reading the amazon blog ~ and I must admit ~ it’s the first time I’ve ever been there. What  a resource I’ve been missing out on!

So what do you think? Is it worth selling some low priced items? Will you? How will you add that to your strategy? Tell me in the comments! I wanna know!

Can I Use Another Affiliate Network Besides Amazon...

I’ve been getting this question quite a bit since Amazon decided to not allow affiliates from certain states due to stuff I don’t anything about. What I do know is if you don’t have Amazon as an option… all is NOT lost!

There are many other affiliate networks available for you to use. Some of them house some of the biggest names in “real life” shopping, like Target, Walmart as well as many very very niche stores that are perfect for finding specific products to promote.

Two of my favorites, and the ones I find easiest to navigate and use are

Linkshare

ShareaSale

I like these because they don’t seem quite as complicated to get around and find what you’re looking for as say CommissionJunction ~ which is another affiliate network you can use… and I still find it confusing to get around and find what I’m looking for.

You will have to apply to both of these programs. You’ll need a website ~ so if you don’t have a blogger blog yet, now’s a good time to get one.

They will ask you some questions, just answer them honestly. I think one of the questions will be about how you’re going to drive traffic… just write in SEO or search engine traffic ~ something like that, because that’s how we get our traffic.

You do not need to tell them you’re going to use your code on your lenses ~ the application pertains to the site you’re using on your application.

Once you’ve been accepted to the network you’ll have to apply individually to each merchant (store) to be an affiliate for them.

This is where having a general “gift” or “deals” blog comes in handy. If your blogger blog, the one you used on your application, is about teeth whitening, and you find a great keyword on a high chair and decide you want to apply to Baby Universe over at LinkShare you may not be accepted because your site about teeth whitening is not really relevant/related to baby stuff.

That’s why I love to do holiday gift sites, or get the best deal sites, because no matter what niche physical products of any type can be given as a gift or you can get a great deal on them. A general site like this gives you better reach for a wider variety of merchants, and products to be able to promote.

Some merchants in these networks will be automatic approval… some won’t. It may take some time to get approved by some of the merchants. Some are more lenient than others and will approve just about everyone. Other merchants will check your site stats and if you don’t have the traffic level they’re looking for in their affiliates they won’t approve you.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get approved by a merchant. It’s no big deal. There are probably 5 or 6 other merchants that can give you the same or similar product, so just find another merchant and apply with them.

Once you’ve been approved by a merchant there is a possibility that depending on your sales level they will dismiss you as an affiliate. It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen so I just want you to be aware.  If you are dismissed by a merchant it is not the end of the world, just find another merchant that carries similar/the same products.

There are many options when it comes to where you can find products to promote. While I teach Amazon mostly ~ because it’s the easiest, and they have EVERYTHING, they are not the only show in town. So if for some reason Amazon is no longer allowing you to be an affiliate don’t worry. You have options.

Starting the Research Process; Finding a Product

The last time I did a “finding killer keywords” post the idea came  from daydreaming and staring out my window.  Although I’m sure there are plenty of ideas outside your window too, I thought I’d be a little more proactive about the product finding process, to show you how that works.

It’s still very easy… don’t complicate the process. It’s the one thing I find beginners do, make things really complicated in their minds, when it’s really as simple as finding something cool you might want to buy online.

Let’s take a look at shopping.com ~ one of my favorite starting places.

This is where I start… you’ll find out in the video it’s not always where I end up. The key to successfully scouting for new products is to be open minded. Don’t get stuck on one product, or one keyword or even one topic.

I go to shopping.com to get an IDEA… then go to the keyword tool (in this video I used google free tool). Once at the keyword tool I may get another idea, a different idea, a more specific idea ~ and that’s OK ~ in fact, that’s good.

So if you’re asking where do I start, how do I pick ~ just jump in and start clicking on products ~ look for something with price point over $100 and then check it out further. It really is trial and error, and as you do more of it you’ll get a feel for it and it will go quicker ~ and you’ll have an idea of what keywords are going to work, and which ones won’t.

Here’s the process I went through in print:

1. Go to shopping.com

2. Click the “see all” link in the top right hand corner

3. Pick a category (I pick something I have some interest in)

4. Look for a price point over $100

5. Take the product name and go to your favorite keyword tool.

6. Check for search volume, keeping your eyes open for better keywords along the way.

7. If you find a possible new keyword take it to Amazon and see how much it costs and if there are reviews.

Then you will have to go and check out the competition levels for the product ~ but that wasn’t part of this video. Today we are just getting started, finding products and possible keywords.

So go on now, get over to shopping.com and test it out for yourself. It’s really not hard, you just have to jump in and do it. Remember, you really can’t get it wrong. Some keywords are certainly better than others, but even if you pick a dud keywords and take action on it ~ you’ve taken action and learned from that action. You’ve practiced which leads to quicker product selection and lens building. So even if you end up with a lens that doesn’t make you money you’ve still won.  (and it becomes another place you can use to link to OTHER lenses from… but that’s another story all together)

Let me know how it goes! I can’t wait to hear.