By Cynthia Arko
Last week's article discussed the impact meta tags, content and keywords have on search engine listings and affiliate programs. This week focuses on some other methods for boosting search rankings.
Buy additional domain names
It's fairly inexpensive to register domain names so why not register a few additional names and redirect them to your main site? By doing a simple Whios.net search I found the following domain names that can be used for search engine submission purposes:
For more information about affiliate programs, check out these other articles from Cynthia Arko's ongoing weekly series:
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Revenue Sharing 101
In this first in a series of weekly articles, Cynthia Arko, Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com affiliate directory, presents a no-nonsense approach to generating revenue from your Web site.
How to Indentify Quality Affiliate Programs
With literally thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, it could be difficult to determine which ones are high quality. However, the process could be made easier when using some basic criteria.
Understanding Affiliate Commission Structures
If you want to get paid, you need to understand affiliate commission payments and the many different commission structures that exist.
Content Sells
Making money with affiliate programs requires much hard work and continued attention to developing and retaining visitor traffic.
Search Engine Tips, Part I
For affiliates, it is important to be listed with the major search engines because they can potentially generate much needed traffic.
Search Engine Tips, Part II
Cynthia Arko explores the impact search engines have on affiliate programs in this second article of a two-part series.
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1800pets4you.com
123fordogs.com
petspetspets.com
welovepets.com
Doorway pages
Doorway pages are content pages that are high in the search engines and will direct traffic to your affiliate links, or niche site. Promote affiliate programs by making up doorway pages and submitting those pages to the search engines.
Be sure to concentrate on one program at a time. Provide content that deals with the same topic as the program you are trying to sell. If you're promoting tennis then provide tips, or articles dealing with tennis. Be sure to include several affiliate links and chances are your clickthrough rates will soar. This good example of a doorway page include several keywords, relevant content, affiliate links and the following information:
"Why waste time with those other credit companies? NextCard offers 100 percent safe online shopping, 1-click bill payment, and 24-hour online account management, including online balance transfers. Don't wait, apply now and get approval decisions in 30 seconds or less. The choice is clear.
Search Engines don't like spam either
Don't create several pages with duplicate content and submit them to many of the same search engines over and over again. Your site will most likely be put on the search engine black list. Try not to over do it with your keywords. Be cautious about how many times you mention "tennis balls" in your Web site and image tags. Don't try to figure out how many variations of "tennis balls" there are in your meta tags (Tennis Balls, tennis balls, TENNis BALLs, etc.). Most search engines aren't case sensitive; therefore create all your meta tags in lower case.
Short on time?
Automatic Submission Services submit your pages to the major search engines using an automatic submission script. Most offer comprehensive services to help boost your search engine ranking.
Many services generate HTML pages designed to rank near the top of the search result. Oftentimes an automatic submission service will analyze your existing Web page(s) and give advice on how to improve them. They also provide detailed reports on your current positions on each search engine and track the number of visitors to your site, where they came from, and what keywords they used to find you.
Mastering the search engines is not an easy task. Aside from creating your site, devote some serious time to your search engine rankings. You'll find it is your most important project in driving traffic and boosting affiliate income.
Cynthia A. Arko is the Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com (Refer-it.com) affiliate directory. She coordinates advertising, site development, and conference planning. Cynthia helped grow Refer-it.com from a small directory of Affiliate Programs to the Web's leading resource for information about affiliate programs. She also currently maintains KidsTown Direct, a shopping portal for parents and young families. Cynthia can be reached at carko@internet.com.
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