How does free search engine traffic work?

You’ve experienced this process a lot of times. You go to Google. Enter in a word or phrase you want to research. And then you visit one or more of the sites that show up. That website owner has just enjoyed the benefit of free traffic. What need to figure out is how to get you free traffic.

Most people only click results from the first couple pages. In fact, the first page of results receives almost all the free traffic. And what’s more, the first 3 get over 70% of the clicks.

So, obviously your site needs to be in the first page of results to get free traffic from Google. To do that, you need to be “ranked” in Google’s Top 10 results. Which brings up..

What is SEO?

SEO means that your website is clearly about something specific, Google knows that that is and thinks others will agree and find your site useful. The intricate formula Google uses to figure this out is really only known by Google. There are several factors that we do know.

Getting indexed

First, before you can get ranked highly, Google has to know you exist. This is known as being “indexed.” When your website gets indexed, Google stores information about it in their massive database.

Google needs to actually find your site in order to index it. Getting a link from another site will accomplish this easily. Because Google already knows about these sites, it will follow the new links to you.

A couple of great places to do this are in your Twitter or Facebook profiles. These sites are very popular so Google indexes them multiple times a day. And follows new links it finds immediately.

Gaining ranking

Once you have been indexed, you will start working on increasing your rank. Just getting indexed does you almost no good, considering that Google has billions of pages in their database.

The 3 factors in getting ranked:

• Content
• Links
• Activity

SEO content

This is the SEO you do on your site itself. You need to make sure your content matches the search terms you’re going after. The topic of this article is clearly SEO. One reason Google knows this is because the words search engine optimization appear inside it. But also because other related words like traffic generation show up in it, as well.

In addition to the content on the page, other things to keep in mind are the title tags on the page, and the domain name itself. Each of these plays a roles in Google determination about your site.

Link juice

The next thing to consider is your links. The links to your site, as well as the sites you link to are important. With inbound links, you want to have more coming in than going out. And the more inbound links the better.

One great way to get lots of inbound links is through web 2.0 sites. With this strategy what you do is write an article about the topic you’re targeting. You have to also write several different versions of your articles. And post unique versions to lots of websites that accept articles. The more sites you can do this for, the more links you’ll get back.

Make your site active

The last thing we know for sure is that Google likes to see active sites. You can’t just put up a page and leave it alone and expect it to rank well. Google expects you to be updating your site regularly. RSS feeds are an easy way to keep your content changing.

Another great way to keep your page content fresh is to enable comments on it and allow others to discuss your page topic. To get comments from others, you need to get others to visit your site. One simple method for doing this is to use forums.

What you need to do is sign up with several forums in your niche. Then become active in the forum. Then put a link to your site in your profile. This will get your more inbound links. And it will also get real visitors to your site.

Conclusion

It’s important that you do everything listed here. But let’s face it, writing multiple versions of the same article. Setting up tons of profiles on forums. And posting your articles and comments takes a lot of time. And you’re already too busy, so you mostly likely will never do any of it.

Fortunately, you can get rank builder software to do all the grunt work for you. So my best advice is to automate as much of this as you can. And then you’re sure to get it done. And not doing it means you will never get free traffic from Google.

The most important thing you can do to increase your affiliate commissions is to presell properly.

First, what is preselling? There are two components to it – art & science. The goal is to get your reader prepped to make a purchase. Then you send them to the site that sells what you’ve prepared them for. If you do it well, it’s completely invisible.

Basically, you give them some content. And then refer them to the product website. We’ll get into how to do it correctly in a minute. First, it’s important to understand why we do it. Just a few of the reasons you want to presell.

• It helps your reader trust you – And gaining the trust of your readers helps them want to click your links. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you’ll earn.
• It takes your reader out of defense mode – When you’re preselling vs. pitching, you’re reader doesn’t feel the need to be guarded. Unguarded reading means they’re not filtering what you say. So your content get absorbed.
• It preps them to buy – Your readers are now receiving your message. And in turn, they’re open to other messages, as well. Like the info on product sales page you’ve linked to. Being open to a sales message is what it means being in a buying mood.
• Your commissions go up – You’ve prepped them and referred them in the right state of mind. With a feeling of trust and openness. This dramatically boosts your sales rate!
• It boosts customer loyalty – People like to make their own buying decisions. Instead of being manipulated into buying. And this leads to greater satisfaction with the product.
• It boosts your profits – A satisfied customer doesn’t ask for a refund. Less refunds means more affiliate money stays in your pocket.

Obviously, it’s important to presell. You earn more commissions. Your customers are happier. It’s a win-win-win!

OK, so how do you do it?

OK, now you understand why it’s so important. So, hopefully you’ve decided to start preselling. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. As I mentioned earlier, it’s both an art and a science.

The art of preselling

Effective preselling requires gaining your readers trust in order for them to let down their guard. Honestly, the only way to do this is to provide real value in you content. Now, providing enough info to be useful, but still making them want more – that’s the art of it. That is, they have to be wanting more when you refer them to the product sales page for the product you’re trying to sell. And because you’ve gained trust, they’re more receptive to the sales message and more likely to buy.

The science component

You also have to include some very specific things.

First of all, it’s important HOW you present your information. You need to know where you’re going before you begin. Your goal is to sell the product you’re promoting. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. One way is to give them enough info to whet the appetite, but not enough to satisfy it. The other method is to explain all the details and expose how difficult it is to do what you’re explaining. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

But you can’t link to your affiliate link. Instead, you use a direct link to the product website. When you do this, you’re click-throughs go way up. But how will you earn affiliate commissions if you don’t use your affiliate link? This is all part of the science of preselling. You use the “covert cookie” strategy.

Next, you want to make sure you’re linking on related words and phrases. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

What you have now is a super powerful system for affiliate marketing success.

OK, here’s the not-so-good news:

Doing all of this right is really hard! Think about everything that goes into crafting an effective preselling article: Good content. First of all, you actually have to write great articles and give value to your readers. Which means you need to be both knowledgable on the subject and capable of writing a high-quality article. Writing to presell. Yes, you must providing useful content. You also have to present the info in a way that provides real value. While at the same time making them want more. The other approach is to reveal a self-evident problem through the information.

Choosing your products. After that you have to figure out which products you want to promote. Even if you get the article written. You’ve wasted all your effort if the product doesn’t sell well.

Techy stuff. To be most effective you have to use the “covert cookie” method. This is pretty easy – you just make a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image with no border and make the “source” of the image your affiliate link. (But if you mess it up, your referrals won’t be tracked.)

Summary:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Using these techniques will increase your affiliate sales by 500% or more! The important thing is to use these techniques for everything you promote as an affiliate. Don’t wait another minute. Make the extra effort required to propel your affiliate business to the next level.

Number 1 – Discover Niches with Fanatics

The first step in developing a profitable membership business is to find a market with fanatics in it. Simply put, a fanatic is someone who’s willing to spend time and more importantly money on a topic they are interested in. Here’s how to find fanatics:

• Look at magazine racks. This is an often overlooked, yet extremely simple way to find niches that people are interested in. Because it’s becoming harder and harder to keep print periodicals profitable these days, if you see a magazine on the shelves, you know it’s making money. And that means there are lots of people interested in it. That doesn’t mean definitely that it will make a good membership business, but it’s a good starting point.
• Pay attention throughout the day in your regular activities. See what people are talking about on the radio, TV, at parties, in public, etc. People generally talk about things they are interested in. And that may also mean they’re willing to pay money to learn more about it.
• Don’t forget about clubs and organizations. If there are enough people to to build a club, there are certainly enough people to start a membership site on the same topic. By the same token, if enough people are interested to hold a convention on a certain topic, you can definitely find enough people to build a membership business around that same topic.
• Think about the things that you are interested in. If you’re interested in something, it’s highly likely others are, too. Making money is fun and it’s even more fun if you can do it in a niche you’re excited about.
• Another fantastic way to discover what people are interest in is Google Trends. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. These topics are the hottest topics because lots and lots of people want information about them. These are the niches you want to be in – lots of people actively searching means lots of opportunity.

Second – Analyze the “commerciality”

OK, so you’ve got a great idea for your niche membership business with lots of fanatics. But will they actually spend money? The quickest way to find out is to determine if others are profiting in your potential niche.

Here’s a punch list for figuring out if anyone’s making money in your niche:

• First go to Google and type in the name of your niche followed by “blog” and “forum”. If there are blogs and forums related to it, that’s a good sign. This means there is a large group of people already assembled for you to market to.
• See if other people are creating and selling product in this niche by searching in Google Shopping, ebay and Amazon. If other people are creating and selling products in this niche, it means there is money to be made.
• Look at Google Adwords for the same ads are running over time. If people are running the same ad over time it means they are making money in the niche. They would not continue to spend money on the ads if there were not making a return from them.

Last, but not least… How hard will it be to break into this niche?

Once you’ve found a niche and figured out that there is money to be made in, you need to determine if you can break into this niche. Here’s how to make this determination:

• Figure out what kinds of products people are interested in. If it’s mostly physical products, coaching and live seminars, then it will be harder to break into this niche. Membership websites based on information are the easiest to start and maintain.
• The next thing to look at is the competition. You don’t want to try to break into a saturated marketing, so figure out how many people are already selling in this niche.
• Size vs. Competition. Some competition is good. It means that this is a profitable market. And as long as the size of the market is large enough to support the competition, you’re fine.
• Market readiness. Are people ready to buy? Are the receptive to marketing messages? Some niches are made up of people who require lots information and have a very long lead time, and some markets are filled with people who will spend lots of money right now.

In Summary

At this point you’ve figured out what niche you’re going into. You found your fanatics, you know they spend money and you’re confident there’s room in the market for you. If you’ve done your homework, your business will be a success because you already know your market is a profitable one with room for you. Learning how to run a membership website is a topic for another article…