If you want to make money on the web

If you want to make money on the web, you must get traffic to your website. If you want to get traffic to your website, you must have a high rank in google's search results.

Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site.
Many novice webmasters believe they can trick Google into giving their website a high rank by swapping links with other webmasters. One reason they believe this, is because "wanna-be" web marketing "experts" keep spouting that trash.

It's only partially true that Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site. Google uses a highly sophisticated page ranking formula that keeps changing and evolving all the time. Google caught onto the link swapping trick years ago.

Novice webmasters put all their link swaps on one gigantically long page referred to as a "link farm". When Google's robot finds a link farm, their ranking formula penalizes the websites listed in the link farm. If Google finds the same site listed in many link farms, they remove that site from their search engine.

Every webmaster that wants to do link swap has a website with zero traffic. Even if Google didn't penalize websites for being listed in a link farm, why would I want to send traffic away from my website to a website that can't return any traffic?


Not only are these novice webmasters not experienced in the way of the web, they seem inexperienced in the way of the world. The first rule of the universe is "you never get a free lunch". If you want your website to rank high in Google, you have to pay them. If you can't afford to pay them, you have to do the work.


It's hard work to get traffic to your website. There is only one method I know that works: put valuable, original content on your website. Other websites, blogs, and forums will post links to the valuable content on your website, not with a link swap, but as a resource to their audience.


When someone places a legitimate link to valuable content on their webpage, the webpage has low link density. Google's page ranking formula gives the page a high score. If a link to your webpage is found on a high scoring webpage, that raises the rank of your webpage.


On the other hand, a page with a high link density, with hundreds of links and little other content, gets a negative score from Google. If a link to your webpage is found on a webpage with a negative score, that lowers the rank of your webpage.


Don't try to scam Google by swapping links, and don't cooperate with foolish webmasters who think there is a "free lunch". If you want to get a higher ranking in Google, resulting in more traffic to your website, there is only one way - good old fashion hard work.


Link exchange has to be managed wisely!


links swap management is not an easy task, but if done properly, it might significantly boost your website's ranking.


First, you should build a link exchange page for your website. If you swap links heavily, you should consider links categorization, and you should create a separate page for each sub-category. It is very annoying for surfers to see huge links pages, with hundreds of non-categorized links, even if they are theme-related. ANY category can be sub-categorized, and you should do that.


Second, you should include your link exchange information in a very clear manner. Some webmasters give the HTML code to be included for the link, and this is a great idea! Anyway, you should provide at least you URL, your link text (your keyphrases to be included!) and a short description of your website (again, your keyphrases to be included!). If you want, you can provide a small image or banner, but keep in mind that text links are more valuable than graphical links. If you provide an image for linking, don't forget to provide also the "alt" text for that image! An email address for link swap is also needed. If you actively do link swap, it is a good idea to have a special email address just for this purpose.



Third, you may want to take a closer look at the website you are swapping links with. If they use a third-party service for link exchange management, then you will get a link back from the website of the third-party service, NOT from the website you are trading links with! Those links are not very precious, because the third-party website, by managing the links of hundreds of different websites, might look to the search engines like a "link farm". Basically, you are "giving" a link to somebody's website, but "receiving back" a link from somebody else's website. To check that, just visit their links page, and watch for an URL change in the address bar of your browser. If the URL does not begin with their domain name, they are using a third party service for links management, and the link you are getting in exchange for yours does not worth too much in terms of page ranking. Many webmasters avoid to trade links with websites that do not host their links page in the same place with their website, but on third-party sites. Anyway, the link that you are getting back might still generate direct traffic for your website. If you need a better understanding of all of the above, you should try a closer look on how the PageRank algorithm works.



Finally, it is a good idea to visit some forums dedicated to links swap and/or link popularity. Many good things can be learned from other people involved in this activity. Knowledge is power, and practical experience is valuable knowledge! Keep that in mind...



How Do I Swap Links?


There is no standard procedure, but a logical recipe for links swapwould look like:

• Find a link exchange partner

• Send an email and ask for a link swap

• If you get a positive reply, add a link from your website to the partner's website

• Send an email to let them know, and to ask for a feed-back when they will add the link to your website


A shorter recipe for link swapwould be:


• Find a link exchange partner and add a link from your website to that website


• Send an email to let them know, and ask for a link back


• If the answer is negative, delete the link you added

Although the second way looks shorter, it is often less efficient, especially if you want to swap linkswith a large number of link partners in a short time. If this is the case, than you might waste much more time tracking negative-answering partners and deleting their links...

You should also periodically check if the link from the partner's website to your website is still there!

If you want to make money on the web

If you want to make money on the web, you must get traffic to your website. If you want to get traffic to your website, you must have a high rank in google's search results.

Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site.
Many novice webmasters believe they can trick Google into giving their website a high rank by swapping links with other webmasters. One reason they believe this, is because "wanna-be" web marketing "experts" keep spouting that trash.

It's only partially true that Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site. Google uses a highly sophisticated page ranking formula that keeps changing and evolving all the time. Google caught onto the link swapping trick years ago.

Novice webmasters put all their link swaps on one gigantically long page referred to as a "link farm". When Google's robot finds a link farm, their ranking formula penalizes the websites listed in the link farm. If Google finds the same site listed in many link farms, they remove that site from their search engine.

Every webmaster that wants to do link swap has a website with zero traffic. Even if Google didn't penalize websites for being listed in a link farm, why would I want to send traffic away from my website to a website that can't return any traffic?


Not only are these novice webmasters not experienced in the way of the web, they seem inexperienced in the way of the world. The first rule of the universe is "you never get a free lunch". If you want your website to rank high in Google, you have to pay them. If you can't afford to pay them, you have to do the work.


It's hard work to get traffic to your website. There is only one method I know that works: put valuable, original content on your website. Other websites, blogs, and forums will post links to the valuable content on your website, not with a link swap, but as a resource to their audience.


When someone places a legitimate link to valuable content on their webpage, the webpage has low link density. Google's page ranking formula gives the page a high score. If a link to your webpage is found on a high scoring webpage, that raises the rank of your webpage.


On the other hand, a page with a high link density, with hundreds of links and little other content, gets a negative score from Google. If a link to your webpage is found on a webpage with a negative score, that lowers the rank of your webpage.


Don't try to scam Google by swapping links, and don't cooperate with foolish webmasters who think there is a "free lunch". If you want to get a higher ranking in Google, resulting in more traffic to your website, there is only one way - good old fashion hard work.


Link exchange has to be managed wisely!


links swap management is not an easy task, but if done properly, it might significantly boost your website's ranking.


First, you should build a link exchange page for your website. If you swap links heavily, you should consider links categorization, and you should create a separate page for each sub-category. It is very annoying for surfers to see huge links pages, with hundreds of non-categorized links, even if they are theme-related. ANY category can be sub-categorized, and you should do that.


Second, you should include your link exchange information in a very clear manner. Some webmasters give the HTML code to be included for the link, and this is a great idea! Anyway, you should provide at least you URL, your link text (your keyphrases to be included!) and a short description of your website (again, your keyphrases to be included!). If you want, you can provide a small image or banner, but keep in mind that text links are more valuable than graphical links. If you provide an image for linking, don't forget to provide also the "alt" text for that image! An email address for link swap is also needed. If you actively do link swap, it is a good idea to have a special email address just for this purpose.



Third, you may want to take a closer look at the website you are swapping links with. If they use a third-party service for link exchange management, then you will get a link back from the website of the third-party service, NOT from the website you are trading links with! Those links are not very precious, because the third-party website, by managing the links of hundreds of different websites, might look to the search engines like a "link farm". Basically, you are "giving" a link to somebody's website, but "receiving back" a link from somebody else's website. To check that, just visit their links page, and watch for an URL change in the address bar of your browser. If the URL does not begin with their domain name, they are using a third party service for links management, and the link you are getting in exchange for yours does not worth too much in terms of page ranking. Many webmasters avoid to trade links with websites that do not host their links page in the same place with their website, but on third-party sites. Anyway, the link that you are getting back might still generate direct traffic for your website. If you need a better understanding of all of the above, you should try a closer look on how the PageRank algorithm works.



Finally, it is a good idea to visit some forums dedicated to links swap and/or link popularity. Many good things can be learned from other people involved in this activity. Knowledge is power, and practical experience is valuable knowledge! Keep that in mind...



How Do I Swap Links?


There is no standard procedure, but a logical recipe for links swapwould look like:

• Find a link exchange partner

• Send an email and ask for a link swap

• If you get a positive reply, add a link from your website to the partner's website

• Send an email to let them know, and to ask for a feed-back when they will add the link to your website


A shorter recipe for link swapwould be:


• Find a link exchange partner and add a link from your website to that website


• Send an email to let them know, and ask for a link back


• If the answer is negative, delete the link you added

Although the second way looks shorter, it is often less efficient, especially if you want to swap linkswith a large number of link partners in a short time. If this is the case, than you might waste much more time tracking negative-answering partners and deleting their links...

You should also periodically check if the link from the partner's website to your website is still there!

Introduction

The business of affiliate marketing has become very popular and with good reason. It comes very nearly to the ideal or "perfect" business. You usually have no need for employees or overhead or carry any physical inventory. Additionally you don't ever have to deal with customers. Handling customer issues is the job of the merchant you are promoting. Finally It is truly a business where you are your own boss. For those who haven't heard the term before affiliate marketing is basically where you promote someone elses product or services and recieve commissions when you refer someone who makes a purchase. Commissions are usually a percentage of the sale. Some programs will pay affiliates for leads instead of sales. There are some affiliate marketing techniques that are free and some that require a investment of money. Affiliate marketing is in my opinion the best way to make money online. It is also an evolving business which means there are always new ways to advertise and new opportunities that open up. A good book I've read that explains comprehensively how to build an affiliate marketing business is The Superaffiliate Handbook.

Where To Start

Where To Start The first thing you need to do if you want to be an affiliate marketer is to find a affiliate program that you want to promote. There are many individual merchants that offer affiliate programs. Unless the program is a well established site such as amazon I recommend instead signing up with an affiliate network. The largest two networks are commission junction and clickbank. I like promoting clickbank products myself but that is just a preference. Clickbank only has affiliate merchants that sell products that can be delivered digitally such as ebooks. They have over 10,000 merchants to choose from to promote. The other big network commission junction has a wide variety of merchants. Some very well known and prominent merchants are a part of commission junctions network. There are many other affiliate networks such as linkshare, affiliate fuel, commissionexchange and too many others to mention.

How To Find The Right Programs To Promote

In order to be successfull in affilate marketing choosing the right merchants to promote is very important. You can do everything else right from creating effective ads and advertising in the right places and still not make money if you don't promote the right merchant. The first thing I recommend looking at is the amount of commission that is offered.

This isn't the only thing you should consider but to make money the commission should be generous. I would say in most cases a good program will payout at least 50 percent commission. Commissions earned for each sale in most cases should be around 25 or 30 dollars. This can change due to other considerations such as conversion rates and popularity of the product or service.

If what you are promoting is a hot popular item you can expect the conversion rates to be higher and an easier sale which might justify promoting a merchant with lower commissions per sale. I also look at how many others are promoting a merchant. If there is a large number of affiliates that means you will have a lot of competition promoting that merchants product.

If there are few affiliates promoting a merchant that tells me that maybe the merchants site isn't converting sales or some other reason affiliates haven't been happy with that merchant. It can sometimes be complicated finding the right merchant to promote so I hope some of my general ideas might be of help in choosing.

If you want to get input from other affiliates about a particular merchant before you promote them I recommend going to affiliate marketing forums such as Ewealth and asking others in the forum for their opinion. Many times affiliates in those forums will be happy to give you their honest opinion if they have dealt with the merchant before.

Other than that sometimes just test promoting a merchant with a small amount of advertising can be a good way to find out if they will be profitable for you.in the right places and still not make money if you don't promote the right merchant. The first thing I recommend looking at is the amount of commission that is offered.

This isn't the only thing you should consider but to make money the commission should be generous. I would say in most cases a good program will payout at least 50 percent commission. Commissions earned for each sale in most cases should be around 25 or 30 dollars. This can change due to other considerations such as conversion rates and popularity of the product or service.

If what you are promoting is a hot popular item you can expect the conversion rates to be higher and an easier sale which might justify promoting a merchant with lower commissions per sale. I also look at how many others are promoting a merchant. If there is a large number of affiliates that means you will have a lot of competition promoting that merchants product.

If there are few affiliates promoting a merchant that tells me that maybe the merchants site isn't converting sales or some other reason affiliates haven't been happy with that merchant. It can sometimes be complicated finding the right merchant to promote so I hope some of my general ideas might be of help in choosing.

If you want to get input from other affiliates about a particular merchant before you promote them I recommend going to affiliate marketing forums such as Ewealth and asking others in the forum for their opinion. Many times affiliates in those forums will be happy to give you their honest opinion if they have dealt with the merchant before. Other than that sometimes just test promoting a merchant with a small amount of advertising can be a good way to find out if they will be profitable for you.

How Commissions Are Tracked

In order for an affiliate to get credit for their commissions there must be some tracking system in place. Affiliates are given special links to send traffic to that looks different from a regular url. These are sometimes called hoplinks. Hoplinks usually go through an affilate network so activity can be tracked. A normal website address looks like this: www.yoursite.com. An affiliate url looks something like this: www.yoursite.com/?affiliate=abc123. This allows for tracking but has some disadvantages such as in search engine marketing that I will get to later.

Some affiliates worry about theft of their commissions that they work hard to earn. There are two ways affiliates lose their commissions. First of all other affiliates can replace their own ids when making purchases. Secondly some people will see an affilate link and decide to chop off the affiliate id in their browser. To combat this to make sure they get the commission many affiliates are using link cloacking software. This hides the affiliate link and helps protect their commissions from being stolen.

How Affiliates Go About Earning Commissions

Affiliate marketers are faced with multiple choices on how to promote their favorite affiliate site. I will go into more detail later on on each marketing technique but here is a list of the most common ways that affiliates use to make commissions.

1. Blogging. My favorite method. There are many individuals who make a very good living from putting affiliate links in their blogs. Well written blogs with either good information or honest and well written reviews of affiliate products have high conversions. Tip: putting an afiliate link in the main text of a blog produces the highest conversion rates.

2. Squidoo lenses. Good way to make money online with affiliate links.

3. Advertising in Google adwords. Affiliates put small google ads in the search results and pay for every click trying to make more money from the commissions than the cost of the adwords. This is very competitive and often times low profit margins. Despite the challenges there are still many affiliate marketers who do well with adwords.

4. Articles. This is becoming very popular. An affiliate writes articles and submits them to article directories. The articles contain a link to an affiliate landing page of some kind in the bio box. Affiliates can do very well with this if they are able to crank out hundreds of well written articles. The traffic quality and conversion rates from well written articles is very good.

5. Forums. Posting in several high traffic forums is a great way to establish yourself as an expert and earn commissions.

6. Ezine advertising. Many affiliates do well with this. Even though conversions generally are not as good as having your own list the cost of advertising in most ezines is very low and your ad can easily be seen by tens of thousands of readers.

7. Building your own list or ezine. This is how most superaffiliates make a large percentage of their commissions.

8. Banner advertising. Not very effective overall in generating commissions. I don't recommend paying for banners on other sites. If you have a high traffic site and have the room for a banner it might be worth doing. Another option is to use free banner exchanges.

9. Contextual advertising. This involves placing small classified type ads on other websites. These are also known as content ads.

10. Newspaper advertising. This involves placing classified ads in newspapers. The response to ads will vary greatly depending on what paper you advertise in.