Top 5 Article Directories
March 16, 2009 by Jeffrey
Filed under Bum Marketing, Featured
There are thousands of article directories you could submit to, but I generally submit to only 5. I only submit to those directories that have an Alexa ranking of less than 10,000, because those are the ones that have the best traffic.
Personally, I’m not after backlinks only. The backlinks are great, sure, but I prefer to get backlinks AND traffic, because it multiplies my efforts.
There are currently only 5 directories I know of that have an Alexa ranking of 10,000 or less. These are the directories I submit to. I will occasionally submit to a few others if I have some spare time, but most articles are only submitted to these five.
3. Buzzle.com
I don’t bother with other directories simply because I don’t get enough traffic from any of them to make it worth my time. I may get a trickle of traffic, or the occasional hit here and there, but no other article directory gives me the level of traffic that these do.
If you find a directory that consistently sends you great traffic, by all means submit to it! This list is purely based on my own experiences, and my own opinion. If you find other directories that work for you, that’s great! But personally, these 5 are the only ones that send be decent traffic on a regular basis.
HubPages vs. Squidoo
March 16, 2009 by Jeffrey
Filed under Bum Marketing, Featured
HubPages and Squidoo can both be great money makers, but which one is “better”? Which one should you use?
Well, I’ll be honest with you, I use BOTH. There’s no reason to NOT use both. In fact, I use other sites, too. (Like Weebly, Wet Paint, and others.) But I do tend to focus most of my energy on Squidoo.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, I just find Squidoo’s interface a little cleaner and easier to use. I also find their actual pages more attractive. They do contain a lot of links, but they are well-organized, and the AdSense ads blend in nicely.
On the other hand, HubPages interface seems a little awkward to use. Their pages are cluttered, and the AdSense ads don’t blend. In fact, their method of randomly choosing AdSense styles and colors can make their pages absolutely ugly. HubPages is also very picky about advertising, and you have to be careful to follow their rules. Squidoo is MUCH more relaxed towards marketing.
I also find that my Squidoo lenses tend to rank a little higher than my HubPages hubs. HubPages seems to perform slightly better in MSN for me, but Squidoo does better in Google. Remember, this is just my experience. Yours may be different!
Overall, I vastly prefer working with Squidoo, but I do use both equally. I would prefer to have TWO pages on the front page of Google whenever possible, rather than just one. If I can get a Squidoo lens and a HubPages hub listed on page one for the same keyword, I could potentially get double the traffic.
So the bottom line is this: use both. You may prefer one over the other as I do, but there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be using both and getting more traffic. I like to create a mirror on HubPages for every lens I make on Squidoo. (No, I don’t mirror the content!) I just write new content for the same keywords, potentially doubling my search engine listings.
ClickBank Product Owner Tips
March 16, 2009 by Jeffrey
Filed under Blogging, Featured, Information Marketing
ClickBank product ownership is one of the most lucrative things a beginner can do to make money online. But there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of ClickBank product owners who aren’t making any money with their products. They probably have no clue why they aren’t making any money, but some of the reasons are pretty obvious.
We’re going to look at some ways you can make more money as a ClickBank owner, so you won’t have to be one of those people who puts up a product and makes no money. Your time is worth more than that!
1. Provide Affiliate Support
One of the most vital parts of a ClickBank business is providing support for your affiliates. You need to give affiliates a clear and easy way to contact you if they have questions or need additional help.
Yes, you will have people spamming you, asking for joint ventures, and sending you other mail that isn’t important. But supporting your affiliates is so important, that you should let people contact you, anyway.
2. Don’t Require Affiliate Email Signup
So many ClickBank publishers require affiliates to enter their name and email address just to get promotional material, and that is probably costing them dozens of affiliates. Only the most well-known and successful product owners can get away with this. Unless you are extremely well known, don’t do this!
3. Test Product Conversions
Nothing makes an affiliate more angry than sending hundreds, even thousands of hits to a product and getting no sales. While there is obviously no way to guarantee conversions, you should test your copy very well and tweak it for maximum conversions. If the product doesn’t convert, any affiliates you do attract will soon leave.
4. Make Your Site Attractive
The design of your page is very important to affiliates. While it may or may not make a difference to conversions, the design is crucial in the eyes of most affiliates. Affiliates are far more discerning than standard visitors, and they expect a nice-looking sales page.
