Using Amazon Affiliate Programs for First-Timers

This article is a guest post by Marian Ashley, just read the guidelines if you want to be My Guest Blogger

So your blog is becoming extremely popular? Starting to get some decent income through AdSense, and think you can make more through Amazon Associates? The good news is the Associates program is very easy to use, and you can implement it into your blog in a variety of ways. The not so great news is that it won't make every blog rich. But since it's free to use, why not at least try it, right?

What Are Affiliate Programs?

For those unfamiliar with the affiliate programming business, affiliate programs are a marketing practice in which a business (in this case Amazon) rewards affiliates (that would be you and other bloggers and webmasters) for each customer brought in through the affiliate's marketing efforts.

How Do They Work?

Try looking at it this way: Amazon wants your traffic. Particularly if your blog covers a product or line of products that Amazon offers, they have a lot to gain from even the mere mention that Amazon sells a certain product. So when you link a customer to Amazon, and they buy a product there, Amazon rewards you with a commission. The commission varies depending on the product.

Because you are not only marketing but directly increasing their sales, Amazon offers their affiliate program to bloggers and webmasters at no charge. Amazon's affiliate program offers a variety of ways to market their products and allows you to customize links and banners to fit the design of your site.

What Are the Different Marketing Tools Amazon Provides?

Amazon give you quite a few options, so it can be a little confusing at first to decide what marketing tool to use.

Links & Banners

These are the most common marketing tools used by Amazon affiliates. These are also both extremely easy to implement on your site. Simply decide what product you want to link or what product category you'd like a banner for, customize the look of the link or banner to your liking, and copy and paste the HTML code Amazon gives you into your own blog, wherever you'd like (though probably somewhere people will see it and click).

Widgets

Amazon Widgets operate on the same concept as links and banners, but provide more options for people to explore Amazon without leaving your site. For instance, the Search Widget allows your readers to find and explore Amazon products while still on your site. Some widgets are catered to certain types of content. For instance, the MP3 Clips Widget, which allows users to listen to MP3 clips from your site, would be great if you run a music blog or are a musician yourself, trying to promote your music on Amazon. If you're not sure which widget is right for you or whether you even need one, just experiment around. You can always track how many purchases are made through which widget.

Tips for Affiliate First-Timers

Having a highly popular site definitely helps with affiliate programs, but what really get you income is people clicking your affiliate links and buying stuff. The following tips will help establish consistent revenue through an affiliate program, provided your site covers a topic involving products that Amazon sells:

·         Traffic is important

·         Loyal readers and trust is more important

·         Consider the intent of your readers (would they be looking to purchase the products you're linking? Or is your site more aimed at readers who already have the product?)

·         Link to products relevant to your readers

·         Readers don't have to buy your linked product for you to get paid. You just need to send them to Amazon.

·         Make genuine product recommendations and reviews.

·         Reader reviews can make huge sells.

Author Bio:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online schools. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

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What Type of Dedicated Server Do You Need?

Let's say that you've build a small online store which targeted your local customer. If you managed the site correctly, I am sure that you will gain a success upon your online business. Year and year to come your store become popular, and then you added more products to be sold. Your customer increased beyond your local area that you have targeted before and your site is not just a small niche store but become one stop online store for your country. Suddenly, your site jammed because its bandwidth exceeded. What would you do if this happened to you?

I suggest, you have to move your hosting into a dedicated server. This type of web hosting service allow you to have a server only for you, it means that the hosting provider doesn't share your server with anybody else. Therefore, the bandwidth that they provide doesn't shared with others.


Now these days the term of dedicated server service has expanded. There are two types of dedicated server service:


1. Managed Hosting
This type of hosting is where you can host your site in hosting provider server. All of the maintenance of your server managed by the provider. You don't have to about the security, monitoring and maintenance the technical aspect of the server, the provider employees will do that kind of stuff for you. Although, this kind of hosting has different type of services depending on the hosting provider that you choose. The features maybe vary from partly through fully managed hosting.

2. Colocation.
The colocation hosting service means that you only rent rack spaces for your server. You have to provide the hardware and the software for your website. However, with this type of hosting you have full control of your own site. The hard part is you have to have good knowledge about the complexity of setting up a server. The hosting company only gives you the bandwidth, and the security matter of your server. The company secured your server in guarded environment; you don't have to worry about losing your server because of thief and natural disaster.
The amount of control and amount of help you want is important to your decision. With Colocation you get complete control as you are only renting rack space. If you don't want this control and want everything taken care of by somebody else then Managed Hosting may be preferable. It means you don't have to be too concerned with the hosting as experts are looking after you website.

As I describe on the first paragraph, your specific needs for your website are obviously key to your decision. Both Colocation and Managed Hosting are good for large websites, but not usually necessary for small, simple ones. For small sites basic hosting may be more cost effective.

So, if your little niche site has grown to the highest level that you have never imagined before maybe is time for your site to move your basic hosting into the dedicated server hosting.


 

 

 

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DO NOT GO OVERBOARD WITH KEYWORDS, PHRASES OR TAGS

This article is a guest post by Tom C, just read the guidelines if you want to be My Guest Blogger

By now I am sure you have learned how to find popular keywords and phrases.  Hopefully you have also learned that you need some which are both popular enough to be sought after, but no so popular that you everyone else is using the exact same ones.

Now I hope, if you have not already found out, that when using the keywords and phrases you have decided on, to keep it simple.  A little goes a long ways. This is something I have learned.   You do not have to go crazy trying to fill every sentence with several keywords, nor make each sentence some all-encompassing key phrase.

Just a couple of popular keywords or a popular key phrase can catch the eye of Google, especially if you are writing something topical and are one of the earlier people out of the chute to write about the subject. 

The same applies to tags.  Do not drive yourself nuts trying to put in tons of single word tags.  Do not try to use long real long phrases.  If you are using single word tags, only use several, which best fit what you are writing about.  If you are using phrases for tags, keep them brief, but make them as descriptive as possible, as if they are a headline.  Only use two or three of these phrases at most.

I hope this helps, but remember, above all else, write well.  If you write something interesting and focus on content first and foremost, you will gain a following. Happy Writing!

 About the Guest :

I am a 36-year-old male from Augusta, GA.  I received a degree in English from the local college,  Augusta State University. When not working I enjoy playing tennis, spending time with friends and obviously writing, including my blog http://musingsandvisuals.blogspot.com

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The 4 Secrets For Writing Better Backlink Building Articles

This article is a guest post by Dominic James, just read the guidelines if you want to be My Guest Blogger

Article marketing is one of the best ways to build up good backlinks. And as we all know it is backlinks that you are going to need if you want your website to move up Google's search results pages.

There are lots of things to bear in mind when writing articles not least of which is the lengthy editorial guidelines that each hosting site will expect you to plough through before you put pen to paper (well, fingertips to keyboard). And read them you must because there is a lot you MUST take into account to make sure that your article is approved for publication.

But there are a few things that you may not pick up from these guidelines. Lessons that are either considered too much like common sense to warrant mentioning or other things that, while not immediately apparent, will really help you to create some great content that will bait those much-needed baclinks.


1. Write something of value
It is vital that your article is:
•    Interesting
•    Informative
•    Unique

If your article is not interesting then you're wasting your time and, worse, wasting the time of your reader. If one of your articles is of little interest (or boring) then your readers will not forget this. So while you may still get some good click-through rates for your first piece people will not come back for a second helping.

If an article is not informative then most people will not read it all the way to the end and they certainly won't share it with their friends or recommend it online.

The whole point of article marketing like this is to generate interest in your article so if your article does not inform your readers in any way then you have failed. Start again!

Your article really must be unique. If your article is run-of-the-mill or clichéd (possibly the worst thing your article can be described as) then it is without value. As simple as that. Start again!

Just because you are creating an article to be syndicated, free around the Internet do not for a minute think that you can afford to produce something that has no value.

The currency you are seeking for your labour is the currency of backlinks. And if what you write does not interest people, does not inform and is not unique then you will, quite rightly, see little or no return for the time you have invested.

2. Write a good amount, but not too much
All article hosting sites will have their own guidelines for a minimum word count that it must reach in order to be published. This minimum figure varies greatly from site to site but, as a rule, 500 words should be the absolute minimum length of your article.

If you are writing a piece that meets the three criteria I mentioned above, i.e. an article that is interesting, informative and unique then 500 words may not be enough to say everything that you want – or need – to say.

And since you will (see: must) be writing about a subject that you genuinely know a lot about then you shouldn't have any problem writing 1,000 words on it. Any less than this and your article may well seem insubstantial. At the other end of the word count debate is articles that are just too long. Very often, once you get past the 2,000 word mark you may fall foul of the tl;dr mentality i.e. "too long, didn't read". Most people will not read an article of more than 2,000 words for a number of reasons. More often than not, it is just not comfortable for users to sit and read such a lengthy piece from a computer monitor.

And if you find that you've started waffling, or trying to 'pad out' your article then chances are you've reached the natural word limit of what you're trying to say. Go back, read your article and look for areas of weakness that you can trim.

3. Don't overstuff your article with keywords and/or links
A handful of good keyword-rich links in an article is fine. Of course it is. After all, you are writing these pieces for SEO benefit, in this case the building of backlinks.

If your article contains too many keywords then it won't read correctly. Article hosting sites will refer to this as 'keyword stuffing' whereas human readers will refer to it as 'boring gibberish'. Either way, you will have lost your audience.

And if there are too many links in the body of the article that connect to your website then your article will be in danger of seeming more like an extended sales pitch than a genuine article. If this is the case, then no one is going to want to syndicate your article and so you will have pretty much wasted your time.

What would be much better is to have literally one or two good links, with good anchor text that link to relevant parts of your website. After all, it's better if lots of people link back to your site once or twice than to have one or two sites linking back dozens of times.

4. Proof read – and then rewrite
The easiest and quickest way to scupper your article is to write one draft and then send it off to your chosen article submission site(s).

Once you have completed your first draft it really must be proofread, and proofread carefully.

If at all possible you should get someone else to proofread your article for you. If you have toiled long and hard on your article then you are liable to miss any mistakes within it so ask a friend or colleague to do your proofreading for you. Their fresh pair of eyes will more keenly spot any mistakes or inconsistencies.

If this is not possible then you will have to proof read it yourself. In my experience, the best thing you can do is to leave your article for an hour or two while you go off and do something completely unrelated. Have some food, watch a movie or play some videogames. In fact, do pretty much anything except more writing of this type.

I find that the best time to proofread your article is first thing the next day. By coming back to your article after a good night's sleep you'll be bringing a fresh pair of eyes to your article and you'll be much more likely to spot mistakes that your eyes may well have continually missed the day before.

When you are proofreading you are doing so you can answer 'yes' to the following questions:
•    Have you said what you wanted to say?
•    Is the pacing of your article even throughout?
•    Have you spotted and corrected all the spelling and grammatical errors?

Unless the answer to all three is an emphatic 'yes' then, sorry, but you're not finished yet.

Go back over your article slowly and carefully. Correct any mistakes, whether factual, grammatical or spelling related and then – you guessed it – proofread it again.

Once you've double-checked or preferably triple-checked your article and can't find any more mistakes then you're good to go. Upload your article and wait for those lovely backlinks to come flooding in.

Happy writing!


About the Guest:

Dominic James is the chief writer for Cable and Hot Deals. He lives and works in Staffordshire, UK.

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Marketing Basics for New Bloggers

This article is a guest post by Alvina Lopez, just read the guidelines if you want to be My Guest Blogger

Perhaps the biggest obstacle that new bloggers must overcome is that of trying to reach a greater audience. In fact, this is such an enormous obstacle that many new bloggers become overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to build an audience and they soon quit blogging after a few months.

In fact, there's nothing worse than feeling like you're typing into a void: all of that hard work for what seems like little return.
Perhaps the greatest way to overcome this obstacle is to simply publish excellent content. If you have great content, then you'll eventually get the readership.

However, until then, you can also do a few things to start marketing your blog and getting your name out there into the blogging community of which you are a part. Here are a few basic marketing ideas that new bloggers can follow to help you build up your blogging brand quickly.  

Guest Post 
One great way to get your name out there is to ask other, more established bloggers to allow you to guest post on their blogs. This means that you'll have access to an already larger audience than that of your blog. The built in traffic means that if you write good content, you might attract regular visitors to your blog. You can also ask more established bloggers to guest post at your own blog. Their name and reputation will bring the traffic numbers to your blog, and hopefully because you have aligned yourself with established bloggers, some of their readers will stick around.  

Comment 
Another way to market your blog is to be active in the blogging community. Read other blogs in your niche, and leave smart comments on articles that interest you. Be sure that your profile has a direct link back to your blog, as this will give other readers a way to find you if they really like your comments. Often, readers will follow a link on a good comment in the hopes of finding more good content at your own blog.  

Social Media 
You should also expand your blog into social media networks. These social networks have built in tools that allow you to maximize your brand while building valuable connections with other bloggers. Be careful not to use these networks to spam your friends with content; instead, you'll want to find a healthy balance of promoting your own blog and interacting with other people.

Article Services 
Finally, you can use an article service to help distribute your blog posts so that they reach a wider audience. The great thing about these article distribution services is that they categorize and group articles by topic, allowing readers to find exactly what they want. Then, if they like what they read in your article, they can follow the links that you have included back to your blog, thus bringing you more traffic.



About the Guest:

This guest contribution was submitted by Alvina Lopez, who specializes in writing about accredited online colleges. Questions and comments can be sent to: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

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This Blog’s PR is 4, I am Happy to Give You the Link Juice

As you've already known that Google recently updated its PageRank. Although some experts said that PR doesn't play a big role anymore in Google's algorithm but it still interesting enough to learn how is it effect the Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP). I, for example, don't really think or care too much about it, at least for this blog's PR. As I said before on my How this blog PR jump from 1 to 3 without regular post, I didn't updated this blog in regular basis, but still this blog PR increased time after time. I am not an SEO expert and I don't have enough knowledge about SEO either, right now I am still looking for the answer for this, let me say, Phenomena.

However, I am happy for what this blog has and I rather surprised to see this blog has increased its PR (again). Now, I proudly announce it to you that this blog's PageRank is 4 (and I say it again: FOUR haha)

And to express my happiness, I will give this blog link juice to you, my visitor. Maybe you questioned me why I call you visitors not readers. I don't call you my reader it just because I noticed that most of you came from Dofollow blog directories, which I've subscribed. Moreover, most of you come just to put your link(s) on the comment section. I am sorry if I am a little bit sarcasm, but it is the fact. Although, It's OK. You and I have the same opportunity, you get your link(s) and I have visitors to maintenance the Alexa Rank.


For those of you who want to have one-way link from this blog you can contact me and leave a nice message include with:

1. Your name
   
2. Your blog's/site's short description with anchor text in it, as your desire. I allow the description only 1-3 sentences; I'll delete the fourth sentence if you write it more than 3 sentences.
   

The Rules

1. I only give one link for one entry
   
2. One person for one blog's/site's link. In case you have more than one blog/site, please only entry your primary blog/site.
   
3. First in first serves. The first entry will appear at number 1 link.
   
4. Just to thanks me, you can tweet this post for your follower or subscribed to my RSS feed, to follow the next link juice gift post.  

I will put your link on my next post. Therefore, your link wills appear on the body of this blog not on the sidebar or comment section. I only give 15 links, so you should hurry up to contact me because the rule is first in first serve. You don't want to miss this excellent opportunity, do you? One-way link from PR 4 blog, it's awesome isn't it.

I will update this post with number of entry that I receive. See you soon.

Contextual Links

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I’ve Launched My First Site; Delonghiespressoreview.com

I am very happy right now; my blogging learning curve is move on to another step. I have launched my first self-hosting blog, it's called delonghiespressoreview.com.

After 2 years learn to tweak Blogger's blog platform, now I am learning how to set up Wordpress self-hosted blog. I love blogger, for its free to use, easy to understand interface and easy to customized layout and theme. However, I want to know more about another platform and I want to know more about how to set a static website.

I want to explain a little bit about my first site, it is a kind of mini site that promotes products from Amazon. This site is an Amazon affiliate site which product an espresso maker from DeLonghi, the Italian house wares manufacture. I dug a research about this nice before I planned to build the site. I hope it will take me to my journey to make money from the Internet.

If you curious about it, just visit www.delonghiespressoreview.com

    

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