Wealthy Affiliate University is an 8 week online training course, created by two self proclaimed experts in the field by the names of Carson and Kyle, no last names, just Carson and Kyle.  While the attempted lack of traceability of these characters by denying us their full names leads me to feel that the product is likely below standard, I’m still forging ahead to give it a try.  In this on line training course, Carson and Kyle provide very comprehensive lessons, available on their website with a new lesson every week, in multiple techniques for generating revenue online.  Although designed for the new affiliate marketer, Wealthy Affiliate University does receive high marks for providing insightful resources and tips for increasing site traffic that impress even the seasoned veteran in online marketing.

The Wealthy Affiliate website is expansive and the initial impression is that it could be overwhelming, but it turns out to be surprisingly easy to navigate.  The “Learning Center” is categorized by: junior, intermediate, and senior levels, and allows each student to advance through the respective articles and ebooks, which are posted in addition to the regular course sessions, at their own pace.

What You’ll Get

For the cost of $29.99 per month you will receive the online 8 week course, including one on one coaching support with Carson and Kyle.  The following tools are included with your paid subscription:

-Google Match Types (for keyword types used in PPC advertising)
-Keyword Phrase Builder (creates multiple keyword combinations)
-Competition Spy Tool (for PPC advertising/ spy on competitor ads)
-Keyword Research Tool (find top searched and relevant keywords)
-Keyword Generator (creates lists with pre and post words chosen)
-Clickbank Research Tool (Clickbank Marketplace offers digital products for affiliates to promote)

The following marketing materials are also included with your paid subscription:
 
-Pay Per Click Networks (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN Ad Center)
-Site Rubix Website Builder (A website builder anyone can use, no coding necessary)
-Turn-Key Feeder Sites (Professional, tested landing pages with your own unique URL)
-Website Templates (Website templates to download and use and customize to fit your own site profile)

Upon graduation from the training course, Wealthy Affiliate has its own affiliate program available for you to market.  By promoting the following courses, Carson and Kyle are providing their own products and support services to comfortably get the new affiliate marketer on his way to feeling secure in online promotion.  Programs and products available for marketing through the Wealthy Affiliate network include:

-The Wealthy Affiliate University membership
-Site Rubix Website Builder
-The Wealthy Affiliate marketing ebooks by Kyle and Carson:
-Beating Adwords
-Inside The List
-Who Loves Money

The Recommendation

A comprehensive program with the added bonus of one on one support, I am giving the Wealthy Affiliate University is solid recommendation to the novice as well as the experienced affiliate marketer.  The lessons are well organized, complete in their instruction and include advanced insights into methods of increasing SEO and revenue that would be beneficial to even the seasoned affiliate marketing veteran.

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Niche marketing is the term given to the use of a very specific market demographic when promoting a product, as opposed to attempting to sell to a broad audience.  The proven premise of niche marketing is that there is a dramatic increase in customer sales to be realized in the narrowing of a target market to only include very specific parameters in desired product, while that market continues to go unserviced.

This is not to say that you must only provide one type of very specific product to be successful.  On the contrary, the most successful businesses capitalize on diversity in their ventures to offset the less profitable aspects with the heavy revenue generators.  The key to success is to market to a niche.  That is, find a small component of your larger customer base that is not being met in its demands and adjust your product and your marketing to cater to that particular niche of your market.  Develop specific marketing for that audience that will prove that you understand their particular desires in your product, and then continue to convince this market of the benefits of your product over the competition, if indeed there is any, and how you have met their needs.  

As a successful player in niche marketing, ideally you will have little competition for your customer base, as the proper research will determine which niches are going unnoticed, and these will be your customers and yours alone.   The balancing act in niche marketing comes with finding a specialized customer base that is large enough to realize profit over costs to produce the product while engaging a market that has been overlooked by the competition.

Keep in mind that niche markets do not last forever.  At one time, there was a specialized niche for fuel economical cars.  While there is absolutely still a market for fuel economy in an automobile, and it is still referred to as a “market niche”, the truth is that all automakers now have small cars available that are big on fuel economy.  So while the market niche is still there, it is no longer an unnoticed market that makes one automaker filthy rich in being the only savvy supplier to this specialized area of the customer base.  When searching for a market niche, it is sometimes helpful to look at the majority of your current customers’ desires and then go in the opposite direction to see how many people are looking for a product similar to yours that will fill their particular need.

As competition catches up to you and your niche market, you will have to adapt or improve your product to continue being in the forefront for supply to your niche.  As your skill in marketing advances, you will have to seek out new ways to convince your market that your product is still superior to the rest, and in many cases longevity of the product succeeds in this task.  Holding the title as being the oldest supplier of a particular product does well in maintenance of a loyal customer base as well as drawing new clientele on the premise that you have been supplying your product the longest, so you are the reigning expert on the product itself.

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Reviewer: Joshua
Rating:  (Top Rated)
Website Reviewed: Stomper Formula 5

The much anticipated release of Stomper Formula 5, has been procured through the combined efforts of successful online marketer Brad Fallon and highly respected and sought after business coach Paul Lemberg who is the narrarator of much of the instruction portion of the videos.  The video portions of the program are conceived, coordinated and scripted by Andy Jenkins, who is highly skilled in the technical aspects of affiliate marketing but can also explain it in easy to understand terms.

What You’ll Get

For the one time price of $3600, the purchaser will receive 5 DVD’s covering the entire training course, as broken into the primary categories of essential business practices, according to Stomper Formula 5:

Margin Magnifier  - Increasing Your Return Margin
- this section of the program teaches you how to correctly price your products for maximum profit as well as using upselling, cross selling and follow up marketing to increase customer base

Sales Stacker - Increasing the Quality Level of Site Visits
-  by showing how to identify more customers in your market niche, the program shows you how to reduce advertising costs while increasing product sales

Lead Landslide - Methods to Easily Double your Lead Generation
-  quick and easy ways to increase your lead generation without wasting time on shortsighted markets

Conversion Control - Consumer Research and Search Habits
-  understanding the complexities of your target market and how you
can cater your site visit experience to capitalize on specific needs of site visitors that are not being serviced by other markets
In addition to the training videos, the purchaser will have access to online training through the members only private website which contains a separate portal for both mastermind and discussion forum.  The level of expertise on the discussion forum is extremely valuable. 

The basis of the five step program of Stomper Formula 5 is to show the affiliate marketer how to implement techniques that will increase business without taking up a lot additional marketing time, by utilizing ways to better understand your business and the customers in your target market niche.  In essence the program teaches you how to use the same amount of time you use now on advertising, but increase the amount of site traffic and revenue generation.

Potential Drawbacks

This program is primarily for people who already have existing websites and are already making some money online.  Stomper Formula 5 does teach methods to increase the amount of site traffic and quality of PPC hits, but it’s real punch is in showing the marketer how to generate more sales from the existing traffic through various cross selling and upselling techniques.

New affiliate marketers who are unfamiliar with the basics of traffic generation will have a hard time grasping the advanced levels of this program.  

The Recommendation

As all testing of the product has reported in dramatic sales increases with no additional time use, Stomper Formula 5 has proven that it is delivering on its promises and is therefore deserving of the highest recommendation.    

Click Here to Visit the Site

Popularity: 10% [?]

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Submit your sites to all of the major directories starting with these:

• Yahoo!

• DMOZ.org

• sbd.bcentral.com

…and move on to…

• Gimpsy
• Skaffe
• Joeant
• GoGuides
• Business.com
• SevenSeek
• ThisIsOurYear
• LookSmart
• BlueFind
• WowDirectory
• Best of the Web
• GeniusFind

Here’s a good list of directories

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

Submitting to the following directories is a great way to get quick quality backlinks.

Popularity: 54% [?]

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By David LeonhardtSocial bookmarking is a phenomenon that has caught on like wildfire, yet there are still many website owners who have no idea what it is, let alone how you can use it to increase your website leads, sales, subscribers and even your repeat visitors.  Get ready to ride the next wave of Internet marketing.

Everyone knows that a bookmark is a piece of paper that marks a page so you can find it easily again.  Most people know that a computer bookmark is a link on your computer that marks a web page so you can find it easily again. 

A social bookmark is a link that marks a web page so you can find it easily again, but also so you can share it with others (that’s why it’s called “social”, usually by posting it to one of several dozen social-bookmarking websites.

Social bookmarking is all the rage these days, with websites like Del.icio.us and Digg and Dzone and Reddit and Furl and, well dozens if not hundreds of others commanding a presence among the top traffic generators on the Internet. People like to bookmark their “finds” and they like to show off their “finds” to others. Hence bookmarking, hence social bookmarking.

Webmasters hoping to capture the attention of today’s Internet user should heed the signs and recognize the phenomenal opportunity presented by social bookmarking. In a follow-up article, I will explain the “how-to”s, but here are five types of marketing advantages ofsocial bookmarking.

REPEAT VISITORS: Considering that many people do not buy/register/contact/take action on their first visit to your website, repeat visitors are a necessity (not to mention laser-targeted prospects!) You can get more repeat visitors to your website if they can find your website again. That means getting them to bookmark your website, either on their computer or on the social bookmarking site of their choice. The more bookmarking options you offer, the more visitors are likely to return. The easier you make it for them to bookmark your site, the more of them will. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will want to bookmark your page.

VIRAL BOOKMARKING: When somebody bookmarks your website on their own computer, they share it with, well, themselves. It’s a private thing. But when they bookmark a web page on a social bookmarking, it’s more “social”. Other people will see it. Other people might share it. Other people might even bookmark it. Websites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia and SpicyPage are ideal for this. In fact, many of the biggest users of a social bookmark website are often users of several. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will care that somebody else has bookmarked your page.

VIRAL LINKING: When somebody sees your link at a social bookmarking website, they might bookmark it…or they might add it to their own blog or portal or fan site. Suddenly one person’s bookmark becomes several links to your website, presumably from reasonably well-targeted sources of traffic. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will want to blog somebody else’s bookmark.

SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS: Many of the social bookmarking websites offer no direct SEO value. The links might feature the NoFollow attribute. Or the mea robots tag might be set to NoFollow. Or your bookmarks might not show on unique URLs. Os the links might use a redirect script that search engine spiders don’t follow. But there are some social bookmarking websites that offer SEO-friendly links.

SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS ELSEWHERE: Even if a link from a social bookmarking website is not SEO-friendly, don’t underestimate its SEO potential. There is a whole industry growing just to game Digg and Del.icio.us, knowing that if a website’s bookmark can stick on the home page for an hour or two, it will mean dozens or even hundreds of inbound links from reasonably relevant blogs and portals and fan sites. And this is natural linking, the kind that search engines love! However, you really must have quality content, or whose going to post a link to your website just because they found it bookmarked?

ABOUT THE WRITER:

David Leonhardt is an effective SEO writer and SEM consultant. Read the David Leonhardt SEO marketing blog, specifically the social bookmarking blog post that inspired this article.

Keywords: Social Bookmarking | Profit From Social Bookmarking

Popularity: 58% [?]

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A good way to start monetizing your site is with Adsense, Adsense is great for many different reasons. First off it is simple to do and Google creates instant relevant ads for your site. Secondly you earn money every time someone just clicks your ads, yes you heard right, they do not have to buy anything; all they have to do is click the ad. You are probably wondering how that works right? Well Google offers business owners and webmaster the opportunity to pay for sponsored listing. This is called Google adwords. You may have seen them, when you do a search in Google you will find to the right that there are sponsored listing, this gives business owners etc…

The opportunity to get targeted traffic quickly without having to wait for natural rankings for certain keywords. When someone sets up an Adword account they can choose to have there ad appear on other websites and the search engines or just one or the other. Google splits the commission with you for referring the targeted traffic. Really it’s a win, win situation; everyone gets a piece of the billion dollar pie. Adsense is free and simple to join, but before you do make sure your site is in working order and has good content. Google can reject your site. Once you get your Adsense account you will be able to place ads on any site that you create.

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You Need Flash 8 for this Content

Another great video by Matt Cutts!

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Ok, so now you are starting to put everything together and you are at the point that you are ready to start designing and creating your site. You may be wondering what is the best and easiest way for a beginner to do this? XsitePro is an html editor that will allow you to build rich content sites that the search engines just can’t resist. This software is very easy to use and offers a step by step user Manuel as well as video lessons. With the resources and not to mention there open forum and great customer service, you will have your site up in no time. With XsitePro, you literally don’t have to know any code, although over time it would be smart to learn some code as it will help you solve problems a lot quicker. The owner of XsitePro “Paul” has really put a lot of time, money and effort into creating a software, so that the average Joe can publish there content on the web.

There are minor disadvantages; the software is not as flexible as some of the other, more expensive editors, so you may not be able to add flashy headers etc… For the money and the ease of its use I would say it is one of the best software on the web. Paul gives you a 365 day money back guarantee, which is unheard of and insane. The reason he does this is because once you use the software and see the ease and start making money, you would never want your money back. I personally use many different html editors and platforms and I use XsitePro quite frequently, especially for my sales letters. Take a look and see what you think, I would suggest even using the software. “Heck you have a full year to see if it is right for you” and if you do decide to try it please let me know what you think.

Click here for more information on XSitePro

Keywords: XsitePro

Popularity: 54% [?]

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Pay per Click advertising is a very popular and productive way to promote your website, if the program is run well. Too often, people set their site up with a provider, choose a couple of keywords, and forget about the campaign. Later, they wonder why they don’t have success with their online ads. It is important to plan, implement, and maintain your pay per click advertising as you would any other marketing campaign. All campaigns have 4 major parts; Research and planning, Implementation , Measurement, and Analysis and adjustment.

Research

What are you marketing? Not all PPC services are the same and some will be better than others depending on the subject of the marketing campaign. Just as the cost per click through depends on the demand for that keyword, success will vary from site to site. For example, BizRate , NexTag , and PriceGrabber are used for price comparison and are geared for retail. Google is by far the most popular search engine with approximately 50% of all search activity.

Set-up Several Campaigns

It is easiest if you start with a single provider with several different keywords, you should quickly be able to tell which keywords are most productive. Once you have honed your keywords, launch with several other providers and compare the effectiveness of each. If you start your campaign with many different keywords and providers, it will be harder to differentiate the success of the site and the success of the keyword.

Metrics

All campaigns are a work in progress…always! To be effective it is important to track of your campaigns progress. Overall, you want information that will help you track your Return on Investment (ROI). At a minimum, you should measure and track the following:

• Times each specific keyword ad was clicked
• Number of people exposed to your ad
• Daily Unique Visitors
• Hourly Unique Visitors
• First time visitors
• Avg. page views per hour
• Page views per visit
• Page views today
• Visits today

Adjust

Now that you have collected and analyzed your information, adjust your plan. Don’t hesitate to change providers or keywords. The internet changes daily so it is important to continue analyzing and change as needed. The following is a list of the most popular providers of pay per click advertising.

• Google AdWords
• Ask.com
• Yahoo! Search Marketing 
• MIVA 
• ABC Search
• Enhance Interactive
• SearchFeed
• 7Search
• Findology 
• Microsoft adCenter

All pay per click campaigns has the potential to be successful. It is an ongoing process but very rewarding when your ROI grows. If you are not able to properly manage your campaign, you may want to look into hiring a management service. This is particularly helpful if you are not staffed to spend the time on research and statistical analysis or if you are investing large sums of money into your campaign. There are also many software programs that can assist with analysis and management.

Keywords: Pay Per Click

Popularity: 61% [?]

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How eye movement research can improve your SEO

When you enter keywords into a search engine the page that comes up is called the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This term sometimes refers to the single page or the complete collected results depending on context. It is important to understand how people respond to these pages to formulate a complete marketing plan for your website.

For years, psychologists have study eye movements in relation to attention, comprehension, reading speed, and general interest. Cornell University performed a recent study on SERPs. They measured both the click percentage rate and visitation time on sites via SERPs using a number of undergraduates in a controlled study setting. The results provide some valuable information for SEO and SERPs in particular. Some key points from the study and application for your site are outlined here:

• The first two listings of a search page receive almost equal attention initially when a page is displayed. However it drops off significantly from there and dissipates. This reiterates the importance of high listings on pages. Interestingly, rankings 6-10 receive almost equal initial attention from the viewer.
• People tend to focus more on entries before the page break, no matter what rank the page break falls. For instance, if the break is at 6 you will see a drastic drop off at 7.
• The time spent exploring the abstract of search result 1 are almost 3 x that of the next closest, item 2. The time spent actually exploring the sites however decreases at a slower rate. This may indicate that they assume pertinent info to the subject to be obtained in the first abstract and then are clicking looking for format and other features that appeal to them.
• On all search engines tested, from the 5-6 result all measurements fall off dramatically, leading one to believe that 5 or above is really the magic SEO rating.

This study re-emphasis the importance of high ranking but it may also imply that most of us are going to be forced to lure customers through other means including pay per click advertising that also has a prominent feature on the page and further studies can be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this and other techniques.

Another study was performed by The Estlow Center regarding eye movement and page layouts. Though this was performed on homepage layouts, it gives us great insight to how people scan all pages. The following were reported in 2004:

• People scan from the top left part of the page and spent more time fixated on this portion than any other portion. This would indicate the most favorable spot for ad placement and is consistent with the Cornell study.
• People generally move from the top left in a diagonal line to the middle right, bottom, then top right looking at the right margin from bottom to top. Though most people assume that people read from left to right in sequential order, this is not true for scanning information. The top right portion of a page is scanned later and for a shorter amount of time than the middle sections all the way across the page. This indicates the least appealing ad space or listing space on a page.
• The best overall placement on any page is indicated to be in the top left to left middle of the page.

Research has always been important to marketing. These are just two studies in a flourishing area of research. Use these tips to pick search and ad placement. We will continue to explore similar studies in future blogs so stay tuned.

Keywords: Serps

Popularity: 43% [?]

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