Slick Affiliate

Unique Blog Designs Offers a Contest

Kyle Eslick — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:25:27 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of Unique Blog Designs work. In fact, I’m such a big fan that I have been considering commissioning them to build a 100% custom theme for an important website/blog I am in the process of building. It is a site that will probably define my online over the coming months/years, so I think doing so could be a great investment.

If you like their work, you may want to check out their 1 year anniversary contest they are running throughout the weekend. All you have to do is leave a comment on their post to earn a point, then blog about the contest to get another 5 points. The lucky winner will receive an iPod Touch and a free copy of their new Citrus theme, which is going to be released in the next couple of weeks ($99.00 value I believe).

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Offer Attractive Ads with Peel Away Ads

Kyle Eslick — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:30:20 +0000

One cool thing about internet marketing and advertising is that it is always growing, changing, and adapting based off advertisers needs and the latest technology. If you follow new technology pretty closely, you might have noticed a new type of advertising which was specifically designed to attract your readers attention. I, of course, am talking about non other than Peel Away Ads. Though Peel Away Ads is not designed specifically for WordPress blogs, it works great on WordPress and you’ve probably seen many of the top bloggers using it on their blogs with great success.

Basically what Peel Away Ads is designed to do is draw a readers attention to the top right corner of your blog, then when someone clicks on it, they are shown your advertisement. I’m sure you can imagine the possibilities for this, ranging from promoting your affiliates to actually promoting internal pages of your website. If you are an affiliate marketer and want to use this as a strategy on your landing pages, you could do that as well, even if you aren’t using WordPress!

Obviously there are a lot of reasons to love Peel Away Ads, but probably the best is the price! Right now it only costs $37.00 and comes with a money back guarantee, making it a no-risk purchase.

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How to: Monetize a GEO Domain with Affiliate Marketing

Kyle Eslick — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:24:10 +0000

In my last post, I introduced you to one of my new sites, Iowa Guide, which was built using WordPress. I’ve found whether I’m making a simple affiliate landing page, a static website, a content management system, or of course a blog, that WordPress is usually the best way to go. Between the themes and plugins available, it is pretty quick and easy to get a site up and running in little to no time.

Okay, so I told you I picked up the City Revolution theme and set off to work. After about a week of writing off and on for the site, I noticed I had a LOT of content, most of which can be found on WordPress pages. That was the easy part since it was a local GEO domain and I didn’t have to research much to create the content!

Once you’ve got your content in place, the next step is usually to monetize the website. The first thing I did was research payout percentages on affiliates. In the case of Iowa Guide, I knew that these travel companies compete pretty heavily for affiliates, so I decided to start there. Between Priceline, Expedia, and Travelocity, I had three good choices, but I ended up going with Priceline because they were able to build a page directly into my website (sort of). This way visitors would be able to browse for discount hotel rooms from what appeared to be within my site. You can check out the Iowa Hotels page and probably not tell that it is actually hosted on Priceline’s servers, because it was built around my site’s layout, including my menu.

With Priceline, I was also able to get affiliate links for their airline and car rental services, but at this time these links will take readers over to their site to search. Hopefully someday I can do the same for both airlines and car rentals.

Once that was done, I then spent some time looking for other affiliate opportunities and found companies such as Ticketmaster and StubHub for people looking for sporting events and concert tickets.

Once the site is setup, or at least looking respectable, you can then start your campaigns to make some sales. The travel industry is an expensive one to compete in, but the payouts are huge if you find a good niche. Currently I’m using PPC to generate additional traffic, then attempting to funnel it to a Hotels page which helps make the sale, then send readers to the hotel page that Priceline built. I am also going to be adding a post or two each week to grow the sites presence in the search engines and remind Google that the site is active.

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Introducing IowaGuide.org

Kyle Eslick — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:33:52 +0000

Since I can’t really share my niche sites with my readers, and I’ve covered most of the basic affiliate marketing strategies that I wanted to talk about, I figured instead why don’t I provide you with an actual example of a site I’ve been working on. This of course is not a niche site, but instead an actual website I’ve developed.

While finishing my WordPress eBook over the past few weeks, I’ve also been throwing together a new informational/reference website named Iowa Guide, which is in the process of being monetized with affiliate marketing.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice when visiting the website is the incredible logo (courtesy of Mark) and the beautiful theme it uses (at least in my opinion). Recently Brian Gardner released a new City Revolution theme which was designed specifically for these types of portal websites. One of my favorite things about this theme is that it contains a drop-down menu for both the pages and the categories, which isn’t something you see very often. It also does a great job of maximizing screen real estate, which is something I really appreciate.

Why I picked this domain? I am fortunate to own a number of GEO domain names in both the dot com and dot org extension. As someone that is located in Iowa, I felt why not start with developing one from Iowa? I already know my way around pretty well, and live near most of the states attractions and other things I’d want to write about. Besides, now if I were to visit a restaurant, hotel, or other landmark and then write a review of it, that is a business expense!!

For this particular domain, I was unable to obtain the dot com extension, but I’ve found that with Geography-based domain names, sometimes you have an advantage with dot org. Dot org has developed a strong trust with internet users because it is traditionally used to house non-profit organizations. With dot org, readers feel more trustful because org domains are typically informational and usually aren’t trying to sell you something.

In my next post, I’ll be talking about how I’m monetizing this domain name with affiliate marketing.

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Learn to Maximize AdSense Income with AdSense Secrets

Kyle Eslick — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:11:04 +0000

The internet is filled with people that are self proclaimed experts of one thing or another, whether we are talking about making money online, internet marketing, blogging, domaining, etc. But it is rare that you run across someone that is widely accepted by the internet as an expert as the authority on a particular subject.

Joel Comm, the Google AdSense expert, is the only person that I know of that meets this criteria. Joel is the author of AdSense Secrets, which is a close to 250 page eBook designed to teach you everything he knows about Google AdSense. That is right, I said almost 250 pages!

Chances are if you’ve read AdSense tips by the many pro bloggers and other “experts” on this subject, they got their information from this Google AdSense bible. I’ve been reading about 5 pages a day and working my way through this document for a few weeks now and finally finished it.

I have to say that this book was the best $9.95 I spent over the past few months and has really opened my eyes to some additional opportunities that AdSense users have. I am hoping to discuss some of these strategies over the coming months after I’ve put them to good use, but in the meantime I wanted to make sure you guys knew that AdSense Secrets was out there at an incredible price. Oh, and don’t forget this could be considered a business expense.

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Affiliate Income Report - July 2008

Kyle Eslick — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:00:03 +0000

Last month I published the second of my monthly Affiliate Income Report series with my June Affiliate Income Report, which is basically a report of how much income is being generated by me via affiliate marketing. As is the case on most blogs that do similar reports each month, this has grown to be one of my most popular posts, so I figured I would continue it again this month.

July Affiliate Marketing Income Report

So, how’d I do?

E-Junkie - $1916.60 ($1279.10)
Clickbank - $181.90 ($159.64)
Commission Junction - $0.00 ($4.79)
Amazon Associates - $10.50 ($0.54)
eBay Partner Network - $122.88 ($195.31)
Other Miscellaneous Affiliates - $776.00 ($398.35)

Gross Income: $3,007.88 ($2,037.73)
Advertising Costs/Banners Purchased: $680.20 ($108.00)
Total Net Income: $2,327.68 ($1,929.73)

**All numbers in quotes represent the previous months income figures**

July was a very interesting month for me personally. I dropped promoting some of my BANS sites to see what would happen and it definitely made a difference in a bad way. BANS is still generating great income though without purchasing PPC income and everything after the first three months has all been pure profit. I always said that my goal with BANS was to get domains to pay for their own renewals so I can grow my domain portfolio (sitting at about 250 right now). Going forward, my plan is to take my BANS income and start renewing the domains I want to keep now so that I won’t have so many come up for renewal all at once. Google also trusts domains renewed out more than a year or two so this may have a positive influence on my site rankings as well.

The other thing you’ll probably notice right away is that both my E-Junkie income and my miscellaneous affiliate accounts both went up quite a bit. My hope is that this is a trend that will continue, though I haven’t been able to pinpoint which changes made the big difference. If I figure that out, I will share my findings in a future post!

You’ll also notice the expenses went up quite a bit. For one, I had a number of domains come up for renewal. Also, due to my lack of design abilities, I have been purchasing some new logos a few of my sites, and I also managed to make a couple significant domain name purchases that I am REALLY excited about. I won’t be releasing any details at this time, but I have possession of the domains and will let you know when there are details to announce.

Expectations for August’s Online Income

I mentioned last month that I had a big project I was working on through July, and a couple of days ago you probably saw my announcement of that project, which was the Success with WordPress eBook. Sales have been good so far and those that have read the eBook have given it some great reviews, so I hope this trend will continue (this income wasn’t disclosed above because it isn’t affiliate generated income). Remember, even if you don’t want to purchase the book, you can make some extra income by promoting Success with WordPress. See the affiliate page for additional information.

For the month of August, my hope is simply to get these two new domains developed and started generating some income. In the meantime, I’m hoping my existing affiliate sites and blogs will continue to generate a similar income to July’s income.

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The SEO Benefits of Article Marketing

Kyle Eslick — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:57:22 +0000

Are you using Article Marketing to increase your niche sites inbound links? Recently the Affiliate Classroom blog wrote a great post about the importance of Article Marketing, and why this strategy is possibly the best SEO for affiliate marketers. After reading through it, I wanted to mention it here.

There are actually 8 reasons listed, but I wanted to point out a few important ones that I think people fail to think about:

Links are one-way. Some SEO experts believe that search engines downplay reciprocal links in their results calculations. While reciprocal links can still be valuable, they don’t count as much as one-way links to your site. Article directories give you a one-way link.

Links are guaranteed. If you’ve never asked a webmaster for a link before, it can feel a bit intimidating. But when you submit articles to directories, you know you won’t get turned down. Seeing those backlinks show up in the SERPs is a nice confidence booster, especially if your site is brand new. As long as your articles are of good quality, they will also send you targeted visitors for a long time to come.

Links per page are fewer. This is a little known, but valuable benefit. Some SEO experts believe that the higher the number of links per page, the less SEO value each link will have. But the link back to your site in an article directory is usually only one of only a few links on the page.

Backlinks soon multiply. Article sites exist for a reason - to provide other webmasters with access to free, quality content. So just one article, in just one directory, can actually turn into hundreds of links, as webmaster after webmaster finds your article and uses it.

If you’d like to read more about Article Marketing, I recommend you check out Josh Spaulding’s Article Marketing Domination eBook.

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Introducing the Success with WordPress eBook!

Kyle Eslick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:03:38 +0000

I sort of teased it in last months income report when I mentioned a project I am working on, and then again this last weekend with my post about Mark’s contest, but now it is finally official. The Success with WordPress eBook is now available!

This project started way back in February 2008 after polling Hack WordPress readers about their interest in a WordPress eBook, and after confirming interest, I have been working on it off and on in the 6 months since. I took my techniques and experiences with WordPress and built them into the book, then built in some affiliate marketing and AdSense techniques, and finally I did a good amount of research for other sections of the book to make sure it is a useful resource for people that purchase it.

Here is what is included with this WordPress eBook:

Building a Multi-Author WordPress Blog
Using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)
Building a WordPress Forum
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips designed specifically for WordPress
Maximizing CPC Income with Google AdSense
Advanced Affiliate Marketing Techniques
Building a Niche Blog with WordPress

In order to tie this post to affiliate marketing, I also wanted to share with my readers here that the Success with WordPress eBook has an affiliate program that uses E-Junkie and pays out 33% per sale! You can find out more about this WordPress Affiliate Program on the affiliate page, including how to get setup and we are also offering a 125×125 banner you can use to advertise the product in your sidebars.

Any questions? Let me know in the comments below!

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Why Won’t I Share My Affiliate Sites With Readers?

Kyle Eslick — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:02:30 +0000

A couple of emails and comments recently have come to me inquiring about why I don’t provide specific examples of my affiliate sites, BANS sites, etc. While I certainly understand that it would be ideal if I provided specific sites you could click over and examine closely, there is actually a reason that I don’t. Well, there are actually two reasons that I don’t, and I figured I would share them in this post.

Niche Theft - Maybe even more so than the Make Money Online niche, Affiliate Marketers (especially upstart ones) often take each others ideas. That is why I stressed in my previous post how important it is to find people that you trust. If I shared on this site which niche sites are making me the most money, I guarantee I would magically see several clone sites within a few days. This is especially true for BANS sites, as it is pretty darn easy to mimic someone else’s BANS site because most of the changes will be in the stylesheet, which people ‘View Source’ and copy on to their BANS themes.
Experience - Trust me when I say that experience is HUGE in affiliate marketing. In other words, no matter how much myself or anyone else helps you, you will only learn how to truly succeed through trial and error. I would say 3 out of every 5 sites I launch fail, but these are the experiences that I covet the most and that motivate me to keep refining my techniques.

Though I encourage everyone just starting out to do plenty of trial and error, one thing I do recommend is once you find a niche that does well, or at least is profitable, attack that niche! Make a cluster of websites in that niche before moving on. An example would be if you find success in the Barbie (toy) niche, maybe launch a Barbie poster site, Barbie clothing site, and/or whatever other Barbie stuff is selling. You could also inter-link these sites (as long as the content is similar) and benefit that way.

On a side note, I have launched a couple actual sites (not niche sites) and plan to blog about some of these sites here and what methods I’m taking to monetize them. Hopefully some of you will have an interest in that.

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Mark Sierra Announces Huge New Contest

Kyle Eslick — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:14:42 +0000

Mark Sierra, who is a good friend of this blog (and also the guy that built our logo), has announced a new contest over at his blog, which includes a number of great prizes!

Here is the list prizes:

GRAND PRIZE
Garmin nuvi 350 GPS navigation system - This cool prize is sponsored by Market Leverage. I’ve seen this thing go for upwards of $320 on some sites. Take it with you in the car or walking around town. Never get lost again. You won’t find this on any other contest they’re involved with!

Prize 1
Apple iPod Nano 4GB Silver¹ - Hey, it’s from Apple and it’s an iPod…need I say more? Valued at $149. Sponsored by MeAndMyDrum.

Prize 2
WOW-Pen Joy - These aren’t available in stores yet, so one lucky winner is going to be among the first to receive this superior ergonomic PC mouse. I’ve been using another model made by the same company and love it!. Sponsored by WOW-Pen.

Prize 3
1-hour Consultation with Garry Conn - Garry continues to provide great tips and information about how to make money online and does so at an incredible rate. He has created untold numbers of blogs for a variety of market niches and has become very successful at it. If you’re interested in making money online, then make it a point to get to know my friend Garry. This hour he’s giving away will no doubt change the way you blog. Valued at $250.

Prize 4
Free 1-year Membership to LifeFoc.us - this prize, valued at $324, is generously offered by another successful online entrepreneur, Aaron Abber. This recently launched online community is already off to a great start and is sure to provide you with encouraging tips on planning and achieving your goals, both online and offline. Happiness can be found in many different areas of your life and LifeFoc.us can help you find them.

Prize 5
1 Market Leverage 2GB USB Pen - Another prize sponsored by MeAndMyDrum, this is something I won from another contest that I’m throwing into the mix. It’s brand-spanking new!

Prize 6
Free ebook: Success With WordPress - Written by Kyle Eslick of Hack WordPress, this hasn’t even been released yet, so the winner will be among the very first to grab a free copy and become even more successful with using WordPress.

Prize 7
Free ebook: Blog Adrenaline - Written by John Moston of DNXpert, this is an 80-page ebook that also includes a 24-page guide to building WordPress themes, AND a “skeleton” WordPress theme that can be customized and given away for building backlinks.

Prize 8
2 Market Leverage Rewards Cards - These guys came through again with another popular prize. Each card is worth $20. There will be 1 winner per card.

Prize 9
Advertising on KeithJamesLock.com - Keith is offering some great advertising opportunities on his blog. One image ad will be placed beneath each of his posts on single post pages as well as beneath the post on the home page. Size can be up to 400×250. He’s also offering a text link up to 50 characters in length. Both will have do-follow links which can be affiliate links if desired. ²

Prize 10
Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress - Created by Mark Mason, this rising star in the Internet marketing world is someone I’ve been following closely. His recent release of these specially designed WordPress themes has been well-received in the online community. Do yourself a favor and get to know Mark so that you can carve out your slice of the make money online pie.

Prize 11
Free ebook: Article Domination - Written by Josh Spaulding, this has been a best seller in the Article Marketing world for a while. It’s packed with step-by-step, easy-to-understand instructions to making money online using articles and article directories to drive qualified traffic to your site or blog. Valued at $39.

Prize 12
125×125 ad on BlogAboutYourBlog - a $20 value, Matthew Henrickson is offering ad space at the top of BlogAboutYourBlog for one month. His blog gets a lot of traffic so your ad will certainly get a great deal of exposure.

Prize 13
Free ebook: Written Prompty Everyday - Written by Christine Senter, this is an inspiring book designed to help you get your creative juices flowing and get over your writer’s block. It lists some very creative prompts that will help get you that spark of creativity you’re looking for.

Prize 14
Free 1-year Membership to I’m On A Budget - My friend Joe Swopes has launched a great new membership site called I’m On A Budget that provides its members with very affordable videos, software, and audio products that cover a wide variety of topics. Valued at $60.

Click over to check out more information about that prize and the information you’ll need participate in the contest.

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