Affiliate marketing isn’t that tough… if you’ve got attention and trust.
You can gain attention and trust through your relationship with people who agree to receive content from you. And you can gain attention from people via search engines because Google trusts your content.
Ideally, you want both.
This post is by Jason of World Fitness Network.
I took a trip down to Borders Bookstore the other day and strolled by the magazine section. I’m not usually very thoughtful about these kinds of things, but something really hit me this time.
I looked at the hundreds of publications on display and felt impressed by the number of magazines that were thriving on topics ranging from running, to arts, and even decadent bathrooms.
Who in the world reads a magazine about bathrooms?
If you’re blogging to promote your services, physical products or digital offerings, you understand that getting a return on investment for the time and effort you put into blogging is important. On the other hand, if you spend all your time relentlessly pitching your wares, you’ll find that you alienate a good portion of your prospective audience.
The problem bloggers face from a selling standpoint is that various readers are at different awareness levels, depending on how long they’ve been reading and how much exposure you’ve provided to your offer. I was reminded by the great John Forde of Copywriter’s Roundtable that this is not a new problem.
What do Thom Yorke, Tim Ferriss and successful new media publishers have in common?
It’s not just that they understand that smart marketing is about relationships more than quick one-time sales.
And it’s not just that they know it’s not just any relationship they want, but loyal, raving fans.
Boy, people don’t seem very happy with Google lately, huh?
Never mind the future implications of a world controlled by Big G. Webmasters and bloggers are making more and more noise about the pervasive power Google has over their online businesses right now. Selling links is the newest hot point, and it looks like some people have been made an example of to put the FUD in the rest of us.
Believe it or not, my strategy since the beginning of Copyblogger has been to pretty much forget search engines exist. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not doing anything to annoy them, and I certainly don’t turn away visitors from search engines. I just don’t depend on them for traffic.
While people work hard to attract links to rank better in search engines, you’ve got to realize that some of the highest quality traffic comes directly from the links. Pretend like search engines are not even a traffic option, and instead focus on repeat traffic and referral sources that no one can take away.
Remember the ecommerce commercial that showed a small group hovering around a computer as they launched their new website? They cheered when the first order notification came through, and again with the second… and then freaked out as the order blips became a relentless torrent.
That’s what Adam Schwartz, CEO of Articulate, said it felt like last Wednesday when we launched their new Rapid E-Learning Blog. The blog attracted 6,312 subscribers in the 24-hour period following the launch promotion, and now has over 8,500 and counting less than a week later.
