So, What’s the Problem?

Do you see the issue with this guys complaint?  For some reason, Mr. Chan thought that he could pay to get traffic TO his site AND click on ads.  By now, I am sure you see the issue here.  All of us want to make some extra money, especially online.  There are experts that have made it look so easy and there are rotten folks that lead people down the wrong paths.  The issue with Mr. Chans “dream” was that most of the time you are paying for traffic that isn’t targeted to ANYTHING.  Click through website users are all about one thing, their own websites.

Most likely these services are a traffic exchange program and the users on the site are given credits after viewing sites for a certain amount of time.  Then with those credits they can buy themselves crappy traffic that won’t do them any good.

What Site Did He Pay All This Money To?

The website that Mr. Chan used was www.engineseeker.com.  I have never heard of this site and naturally wanted to go check it out to see what type of website he was dealing with right from the “get-go”.  At first glance, I actually like the way the site is setup.  Straight to the point and all the information is right in front of you to see.

I don’t think that I would ever use a service to pay for traffic, ONLY because I have been learning my way through Adwords and other sites like Facebook and Myspace for advertising.  But with some of the features of EngineSeeker.com I would certainly keep them in mind for any large projects I might need traffic for.

What Do You Get for Your Money?

24/7 access to tools that include:

• Traffic Stats
• SEO
• Inbound link report
• Metatag optimization
• Competition analyzer
• Related link directories
• Crawler optimization
• Doorway pages

What The Hell Do I Think?

Well, I have two things going through my head right now.  Either Mr. Chan is BRAND new at the traffic game (most likely) OR (and it’s a big OR) Mr. Chan owns the site and used the magazine to promote it.  The second idea is pretty damn smart on his part.  Of course, he didn’t use a positive testimonial, BUT those that know you aren’t going to make crap from traffic like that understand the testimonial isn’t actually a bad one.

I started to think about how long I have seen this commercial in December and I can remember it on TV for a long time.  Of course, before my internet marketing days, I wouldn’t have thought about what Lexus was trying to pull with the commercial, but now, that’s all I thought about.

The Lexus car commercials make it seem like it is very possible to purchase a $30,000 to $100,000 car as a gift for a loved one, but it is hardly a decision an average joe can make.  How many Lexus vehicles are sold in December?  Do you think that Lexus makes big profits from people buying these cars as gifts?

I think that the Lexus commercials are a good ploy and that the dealerships probably do sell more Lexus than other months.  Why do I think this?  Well, those that have the money to do so, would love to spend before the year is up.  Also, those that have the money love to buy expensive things, especially for loved ones.

I read about a dealership in Wisconsin that actually says that he sells 1/2 a dozen  of these vehicles just as gifts every December.  That is quite a bit in my opinion even for those that live in Wisconsin.  There aren’t many celebs or rich folks just walking around the state as they have in California, or New York.

Why I think the commercial is STILL on?  Lexus knows the commercial works.  They hear from dealers that see sales go up during that time and they will continue to show it for Decembers to come.

What does this have to do with internet/affiliate marketing?  It’s simple.  We all that when we find a promotional method or offer that makes us the most money (like the Pepsi or Subway offers) we stick with that method until the money stops coming in.  If it doesn’t, like in the case of Lexus, then we do NOT stop the method.

Always keep your eye out for ways that big businesses are promoting their products and see if you can implement these methods in your every day affiliate marketing strategies.

When I am writing up a short post or a long article, I try to keep certain keywords in mind, but I also try to keep the reader in mind.  You may have to keep the reader insterested longer than you think.  That “12 seconds” you have to impress the reader is important.  If you are going to fill a post with a ton of keyword content and forget about the “real meat”, you aren’t going to have to worry about readers, that’s for sure.

I found a website that will check over your website and then rank how easy it is for your readers to read. 

Check out the readability of your blog:  http://www.addedbytes.com/tools/readability-score/

The website is extremely easy to use and you can check any number of variables as well.  For the most part you are just taking your text and pasting it into a box on the page.

Once completed, you will see the readability score of the text, from different scoring systems.  The higher the grade, the more readable the text is.  There are links to the Wikipedia pages of each test as well, so that you can read about how and what they grade the text on.

This post has a 81.70 (out of 100) for a score, so at least I know it is quite easy to read.  It’s useful tool if you are writing long articles for your  blog or website.  Check out how each system grades your text and see how you score.

The idea is to introduce each new blogger that is commenting here on AffiliateObsession.com.  Obviously I would like to be able to give each and every single person links to their blog or website, but I want to keep it clean and targeted towards readers that I already have.

What I am going to do is write a simple review of the blogger (and their site) based on information I read about on their site/blog.  That way, I can introduce those that are new to Affiliate Obsession, to those that are reading already.

What is the Point?

Well first off, I think it will help create a since of community here and might even encourage others to comment as well.  The one catch is that you will have to comment, leave a web address you are associated with (preferable with an About Me page) and deal with the fact that you will not be getting a link to your blog.  I know the point of a review is sometimes that you get a little link love, but these will not be paid reviews or anything like that.  (No, I will not accept money, I just want more comments!)

So, if you want to play the game, simply leave a review and based on most others that I have, the sites are related to some type of internet, affiliate marketing or blogging, so that topic works great.  I am just trying to increase the exposure for those in my niche.

What can you do to help?

• You can leave a comment like AverageGal did (no SPAM, I am not new to this)
• You can send a tweet to all your friends and tell them how they can get more exposure (minus a link)
• You can email my post to others and encourage discussion on this blog.

It’s is very easy and in case that I get a lot of comments or replies to this post, here is the disclaimer:

I will be choosing the introductions I do randomly, based on the comment itself (se be creative).  Those without websites will not be eligible for this so please, don’t forget to fill in that field on the comment form.

If I get overwhelmed I will NOT give up, but I might only do ONE per week.  If you are missed, I am sorry, but I can only do so much and really hope I can still count on your participation on this blog.  Any questions, please use the comment form.

With that said, here is the intro for AverageGal.com.

I would like to welcome a new reader of AffiliateObsession.com, Rachel Holmgren of AverageGal.com.  She had left a comment on my Kontera post this week.  I like to follow as many bloggers as I can, so I visited her site and I was happy to see some of the things she posts about.

From the About Me page:

She is a married, college grad with 2 children and is hoping to make it big like the rest of us online.  While maintaining a success online business and stay at home relationship with her children, Rachel seems to have a bit of knowledge of things related to affiliate marketing, as well as, blogging in general.

Her blog is fairly new, but I encourage everyone to welcome her to AffiliateObsession and visit her site (from her comment link) to give feedback and support!

If you want to make a brand out of some well taken photos for your business, then you need to head over to Animoto right now.  Dubbed the “end of slideshows”, Animoto takes some of your favorite images and puts them to music.  I know, you think it’s just like every other website on the net?  You would be WRONG.

Animoto was featured in the newest issue of Entreprenuer magazine and after I read through the interview, I had to try out the service.  Taking about 12-15 images for a 30 second short, the Animoto system puts your images to the music YOU choose.  What do I mean?  If you choose Latin music you will see a different video than if you choose a Beethoven piece.  Your images will be the same, BUT the effects and music will change.

It really doesn’t take all that long.  I did two quick videos with about 5-8 images each and the video was ready for review in about 3 minutes.  After I did my first test video, I realized that I could use the service to create an entire exprience through many images.  I chose the second set of images very carefully and really liked the second run through.

How to Use Animoto.com to Brand

If you run a website that provides a specific service, like web design, you could have one of these videos playing on the homepage that showcases your portfolio.  Set to music you can really create a buying atmosphere for your clients or first timers.  Check out the Animoto website and see if it’s something that works for you.

What Animoto Says

Animoto has case studies for come specific niches like, photography, real estate and classy resturants.  I think that you can use this type of service for just about any niche.  For blogging, you could take screenshots of your blog’s popular posts and just have them rotate to the music, pulling your readers into your blog.  Not to mention increasing the avg. time spent on your site.

The business, or commercial services they provide are priced very reasonable.  For unlimited videos and DVD quality downloads, you pay only $99 for 3 months or $249/year.  For business use you get amazing features like:

• Cinematic Artificial Intelligence
• Include Text
• Incredibly fast turnarounds
• Share with ease
• Call to action button
• Unlimited DVD-quality videos
• Remix
• Upload promotional videos to YouTube
• Sell DVDs to your clients
• Spice up your blog
• and MUCH more…

As you can see, the business part of the Animoto service can really brighten up and enhance the user experience on your site or blog.  For the price of $99 (3 months), I think it is well worth the time and money for your own case study.

Other Options with Animoto

If you do not want to subscribe, but want a full length video made, you can get them for $3 each or just buy an all-access pass (unlimited videos and downloads) for a small fee of $30/year.  All payments through the website are handled with Paypal & Google checkout.  This makes the process even more secure and faster.

Animoto Shorts are 30-seconds in length and free for everyone. You can produce, remix, and share as many as you’d like.

Full-length videos, in contrast, are extended in length. A video’s length is determined by the number of images and the music it uses. The length of a full-length video is limited only by our upload file size cap, which is 10MB for music files. This is generally 5-10 minutes of music, depending on the encoding.

 

That’s That…

While creating a couple of shorts for my blogs, I realized how easy the service really is and how addicting it was at the same time. Take your time and you can create some really nice videos, like the one I made for this blog.

Have you used this service before? Comment and link us to some of the shorts you have created.

Stats via Google Analytics

Everyone LOVES numbers, so I thought I would gather all of mine up so that you can compare, boast about yours, or just enjoy them in silence.

• 109 posts (21.8 per month)
• 169 approved comments
• over 2,300 visits
• over 4,600 pageviews
• 2:16 avg. time on site

Top 4 Referring Sites

• stumbleupon.com – who would stumble my content?
• images.google.com – image of money that gets searched for
• shoemoney.com – commenting on his blog
• entrecard.com – best free way to get traffic to a blog

Posts with Most Traffic (besides homepage)

1. http://www.affiliateobsession.com/make-money/amazoncom-niche-store-free-trial-review/ - top keyword post, too no income on that which surprised me
2. http://www.affiliateobsession.com/advertising/250-in-facebook-ad-coupons/
3. http://www.affiliateobsession.com/cpa-networks/who-wants-entrecard-credits/
4. http://www.affiliateobsession.com/marketing/how-to-get-online-marketing-for-free/
5. http://www.affiliateobsession.com/make-money/facebook-coupon-ppc-campaign-gamefly-trial/

I also had over 1900 new visitors to this blog, but as you can see, not too many of them found the content good (or unique) enough to subscribe.  I understand that part of it.  This blog is very similar to many others on the web, it’s just that this one is MY blog and where I jot down my experiences.  It might not set it apart from all the others, but my situations might create an idea or situation for another.

Some of things I would like to see in the future?

I guess i wouldn’t mind to see about 500 more subscribers for the new year.  I will have to think of ways to gain the readership that other blogs have and that is going to take some serious planning.  I also would like to see more people commenting on my blog.  With at least 15 visitors per day, I would like to think my content would create some discussion with at least ONE of them.

I also plan to get more involved in social media.  I know the traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but the effort it takes to gain the exposure is quite small.  So, I don’t think it was a bad 5 months at all.  The traffic is choppy but on the rise and I have gained subscribers without any type of subscribing contest, so that must mean something.

Wish me luck and I would like to say good luck to everyone in 2009!

Those are higher profile blogs with some decent daily visitor numbers.  Of course, if my blog wasn’t on the same topic as theirs, I wouldn’t get as many visitors from them.

Of the 8 blogs that I have showing, there was a total of 233 visits and an average of 2.03 pages per visit.  I didn’t comment on each blog every single day, but if I read a post of theirs and I thought that I had something to add, I certainly did.

Not all of it was affiliate marketing related either.  Some of the posts that Shoe has added this last month have been political, but because the focus on the blog is generally the same, I commented with my AffiliateObsession anchor text.

This isn’t a huge amount of traffic to my blog, but if you think about the blog only being 4 months old, it was well worth it to get my blogs name out to the blogshere one comment at a time.  Over the past 4 months I have also been in contact with more people via Twitter and the twhirl application.  That has also shown some results

First

Ask them.  Easy huh?  Well, it really is.  Set up a poll, ask their age or some other type of descriptive question.  That is one easy way to find out who you are dealing with.  You can see the “age” poll situated at the bottom of my sidebar.  I must say that I am 100% surprised at the votes.  There is just about an equal range reading this blog.  I would have guessed (or maybe hoped) it was users around my age, 29.

Second

Check your blogs stats.  Most analytics will have some kind of breakdown for your visitors.  Although it doesn’t know the ages, it will at least be able to give you the location, operating systems, IP address, etc.  This information can also be helpful in trying to find out what types of users you have lurking around.

Third

Create a BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog or Twitter account.  This will help you learn more about who reads your blog as well.  You, in turn, can visit their blogs and see what types of things they blog about or what they are experts in.  All of these things are helpful in gaining readers and are free to use.

Now you should have some kind of idea who you are marketing your blogging towards and that can be helpful.  Especially when you are spending money to market your blog.  You want to make sure the readers you expect are getting there and reading each word to make it worth every penny.

Do you have specific ways you market your blog or is it just general/generic?

This tip sort of plays into the networking tip as well.  Bloggers read other blogs, that’s just the way it is.  Giving away a few tips and tricks is a good way to get readers to keep coming back to your blog.  If they like the tip, use it and it works for them, most of the time they will come to your blog for more information.

You don’t have to go around and email everyone you know, but maybe you have a couple of other bloggers on your friends list or in your mybloglog.com community, that you can send the tips to.  You never know, they might give you some props by posting the tips on their blog.  Another thing you can do is participate in forums.  Find relevant topics and post a link to your blog post offering help via the tips you write about.

Never stop looking for ideas, they are out there.

So, pick an idea or tip to share with the next guy, it will only help the blogging community in the long run.

What is the value of all of that information if you never put it to good use?  There are many bloggers that read, talk about reading this or that from here or there, but are they actually implementing any of those tactics or experimenting with new things?  Not likely and that is the sad part.

If you are serious about blogging, take in the advice that is out there and put it to work.  There is nothing wrong with a little testing here and there.  How else will you know what works and what doesn’t?

So, next time you are reading about the next biggest thing for bloggers (a widget, tactic, some software, etc), why not give it a try, you just never know what you might find out about your blog.