If you are wanting to get yourself more affiliates under you in SEO Clerks, Code Clerks & Listing Dock, then there are lots of different ways to get them, a lot of people just promote their actual affiliate link, which is not wrong, but for the best results, running your own affiliate store is the way to go! Why? Have a look below..
back at the start of last year (2013) and since have been changing it around, how it looks, promotion methods, etc.. all seeing which works best, what improves the stats, visitors, affiliate sign ups, etc.. and also seeing what doesn't work. I am currently making my second affiliate store and that should be all ready to go within the next couple of weeks.
These are pretty simple steps to follow and with each step, I have included links to help you find what you need. If you have any questions about any of the steps, please reply below and I will get back to you and provide more information. Have a read through it all first, rather than just starting at straight away, read it all, then come back and start from number 1.
1) Affiliate Store Software
Firstly, to build an affiliate store, you need affiliate store software. This can be bought on the SEO Clerks marketplace at a very good price. Below I have listed some of the different affiliate store software that you can choose from.
Click on which ever one you want to use, then order and download it. If you have already bought the hosting for your store, be sure to check each script above to ensure it compatible with your hosting.
2) Your Domain
The Domain / Website URL that you have on your affiliate store can be anything you want, you can choose something because you like it and it looks good, but for best results, keep in mind the following tips when choosing your domain..
- A lot of people like to choose something with the words "Clerk" or "Clerks" in it because it goes with SEO Clerks, this is completely up to you and don't think by doing this it will help you get more visitors, etc.. There is one good point to having a domain that is close to SEO Clerks, that is that when a visitor to your website hovers over a link, it will be a SEO Clerks URL with your affiliate ID in it, having a similar URL there will make things less obvious that that your have an affiliate store and your not the actual website delivering the services, but that being said, this isn't a big deal either.
- Include targeted Keywords in your domain. Words like SEO, Promotion, Marketing, etc.. are good Keywords in your domain. A good way to find popular search terms to maybe use in or as your domain is to head onto Google Adwords, and use the Keyword Planner, there is a couple of different ones there, use the one that says "Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups", enter search terms / keywords / phrases to see what monthly searches they get. When using this tool, be sure to Wrap each term with these [ ] , Example: [Buy High PR Links], this will get you the search results for that Exact search term (keyword). Remember to adjust the Targeting Options also for further filter your results. Do not pay much attention to the Competition which you will be told about, that is a measure of the competition for the keyword on Google Adwords Advertising.
- So you know what domain you want, but have you considered what extension for it your wanting? You should.. .com is the most popular, but not always the best for every website. Check out this Wiki Page to find out what each extension means and stands for.
You can register domain names at very good prices using
1&1,
123-Reg,
Crazy Domains,
Domain,
Go Daddy,
Name Cheap &
Register.
If you don't want to register a new domain, and would rather go down the root of buying a domain that already has some stats as far as ranking, searches, etc.. then you can find good domains for sale from sellers at
Digital Point,
Forum Promotion,
Go Daddy,
Namecheap &
Sedo. Look for the following things when searching to buy a used domain..
- No Search Engine Penalties or Bans.
- Monthly Visitors (Organic & Total).
- Good Domain Authority.
- Good Domain History.
- Good Alexa Rank.
Google Page Rank (PR) maybe be cool to have, but doesn't really contribute to your website Visitors, Earnings, etc.. so don't bother paying a lot of cash just for High PR, look for the other points I mentioned. That said, if do want to check the PR of some domains, you can use
This Tool to do so.
3) Your Hosting
If you already use a hosting service and are happy with that company, then just go ahead and add a new hosting package (if necessary) and your now ready to set up your affiliate store website. If you need to buy hosting, then continue to read this step, rather than moving onto Step 4.
The choice you make for a service to host your affiliate store is an important one, so be sure to not just order the first you come across and do check them out and compare. Your hosting must be reliable, very slow websites and downtime is not good and can cause you to loss sign ups. Depending on which affiliate store software you choose, your hosting requirements may be different, read the sale page for your choosing software to find out any important information about specific hosting requirements. Below are some key points to look for when choosing a host..
- Good Existing Customers Reviews.
- Good Support Level & 24 Hour Live Chat Help.
- Full Website Access.
- Suitable Payment Cycles.
- Years of Experience / Good History.
Good, reliable hosting can be found at a low cost from
1&1,
Blue Host,
Dream Hosting,
Ethernet Servers,
Host Gator,
Just Host &
UK Fast.
4) Getting Your Store Live
So now you have your Software, Domain, And Hosting, its time to put the three together. Now depending on the combination of your Hosting Company & Domain Registrar, things may vary on how you set your domain to your website, I have listed some information pages below that might help..
Once you have linked your domain to your hosting, things can take up to 24 hours or so before it goes live. As for uploading and installing the software, that can be done just now too, if you have knowledge of coding and can install the software yourself, then go right ahead, if not, then you can hire a freelancers from any of the following websites to do it for you..
Be sure to ask about previous work the freelancers / coders have done and also ask about how long they have been coding and make a judgement if you think that person can do the job or not.
5) Customising Your Store
You've now got yourself live, working SEO Clerks Affiliate Store. Great, but there is still some more things to do before its ready to start promoting. Depending on your chosen affiliate store software, the place you add your Affiliate ID is different, check with your affiliate store software provider (seller) to find out, do this now as it is very important, your website is live and you don't want to lose affiliate sign ups because this wasn't done or forgot about.
You want a good theme for your website, well, below I have listed one that you could buy then use,
I have also listed some places you could look to have a custom theme created for your affiliate store website..
If you do not want to install a theme at the moment, you can leave your website as it is, but I do recommend you add a unique banner with your store name and logo. You can search the above mentioned websites to find someone to create a banner and any other images you need / want for on your website. You may also want to get yourself a few Promotional Images / Banners made for promoting your store at a later stage
(Common Sizes: 468x60, 88x31, 100x100 200x200, 250x300, 120x600, 160x600 & 728x90). Below I have listed some more you could search on..
I recommend you add a
SEO Clerks Promotional Banner on your website, a 728x90 in the Header or Footer, or a 120x600 / 160x600 in the Side Column works best in my opinion. The design and look of your website will probably change over time, be sure your coding is all clean and remember to save back ups of your website so when your editing, changing and/or removing things, if it goes wrong, you can easily just revert back to what it was like before the change(s).
You can use this tool to view how your store looks on different Mobile Browsers:
SEO Mind: Mobile Compatability Checker.
You can use this tool to test the Loading Speed of your affiliate store:
SEO Mind: Website Speed Test.
Other free tools you can use are the
Spider Preview &
Header Checker Tools.
6) Setting Up Your Networks
Social Networking is a big thing, and it is important you incorporate it into your affiliate store and promotion. First of all, you want to create your Social Network Accounts / Profile. I suggest you make at least a
Twitter Profile,
Facebook Page,
Google +1 Page and a
YouTube Channel (if you plan to make videos for your store), you can create more if you want such as Instagram, Pinterest, Bebo & more. Once you have got your accounts created, filled out all the profile information, etc.. on them and added images to them, you want to include them on your website.
You can create
Twitter Widgets that show your latest tweets, favourites, lists, even a custom timeline by going to your "Twitter Settings", then clicking on "Widgets", you can create
Facebook Widgets such as like boxes, like & follow buttons, timelines & more by visiting the
FB Developers | Social Plugins area, you can create different
Google +1 Widgets by visiting with the
Google Developers | +1 Platform area and to create a
YouTube Widget for your website, have a read at these 2 pages:
Andrew Macarthy Social Media &
Widget Box / Tag / YouTube.
For Other Widgets for Social Networks including the above mentioned & more. have a look at
Add This / Follow. To include the SEO Clerks feed with Your Affiliate ID on your website (
Feed Here), then visit
RSS Include or
Feed.Mikle to create widgets for that.
When adding these to your website, be sure to put them in a good place. You don't have big massive widgets all over the place, but you do want them in area that will get them the right amount of attention. I suggest putting your Widgets in the Side Panel / Column of your store and Links to them in your Website Footer.
It is important that you manage your social network profiles, there is no point having them, getting followers, then not updating and posting on them. I recommend using a
Social Media Management service such as one of these..
The above services, or any other similar available
(there are lots), allow you to schedule all your shares for all your social networks for as much as months, even years ahead, you can do as many per day as you like and every day of the week. Be sure to check the features and pricing as it varies from service to service. These also provide a lot of other add on features as well as Scheduled Posting to help manage your Social Network Profiles.
Add Sharing Tools: So you have all Your Social Network Profiles on your website (step 6), but you also want to add Tools that your visitors can use to share your webpages on Their Social Network Profiles. You can choose to either add the sharing tools around your website just like you added your Widgets in the above step, or you can choose to have them as a Bar across the top or bottom of your website, have them floating down the left of right sides of your website, or even as layers, pop ups, pop unders and more, check out
Add This,
Add To Any,
Share This,
Smart Add On or
Shareaholic to see all the different options, once you've created yours, add them to your website.
7) Add A List Builder
By building a list of emails (clients), you can promote to them again, and again. This is great because if they don't sign up to SEO Clerks when they are on your store, but do add their email address to your list, then you always have the chance of getting them to sign up to SEO Clerks under you at some other point. Even if the person does sign up to SEO Clerks under you, if they have joined your list also, then you can still promote gigs to them which will get you commissions too. You can use the following services to build & manage your lists and also send your ads out too..
Have a look at each of the above suggested List Building Services, check out how much they cost, how much it costs to upgrade when your list(s) grow, how many emails are allowed to be sent out per week/month, also how many templates can be used, etc.. Be sure you choose one that suits your needs and you can afford. Once you have signed up, you will be able to create a
Email Subscribe Widget from them, you should place this on your affiliate store where it will be seen.
8) Set Up Visitors Tracking
When you start promoting your affiliate store website, you want to know about the visitors you get, you want to know where abouts on the net they came from, where about in the world they are from, what method they used to enter your store and more. All this information can help you better your promotional methods and campaigns to achieve better results. You can find out all this information by following this simple step.
If you are using HostGator to host your website, then you will already have
AwStats installed, if you have just created your hosting package, then the visitor statistics and take a few days to work, just check back in on it in a couple of days and see if your starting to track visits, if not, then contact the HostGator Live Chat for help.
If your not using HostGator, or are using them, but want to use a different Statistical Analysis Software / Service, then check out the following services and choose one you like the look of and provides the best information for you..
Choose which service you want to use, then install / add the code to your store website. Each of the above will have their information and help for installing their script on your website.
is in order, you now have your own, up and running SEO Clerks Affiliate Store Website. As I mentioned before, how your website looks, works, etc.. you will change and tweak as time goes on, just be sure to save regular back ups of your website encase anything doesn't go to plan. Now you have a good looking, working affiliate store, you need to let people know about it so that you can start pulling you in affiliate sign ups and earnings. Continue onto Step 9 to find out some information promotion for affiliate store website.
9) Promoting Your Store
There are many different ways to promote your affiliate store website, and there and many different opinions on which is best, which work, and which don't, I have wrote a little about each of the different types of promotion I know about and you can choose which ones to use and which to not, in my own opinion.. A mixture of all of them works well, check them out, try them out and form your own opinion of what you think is best.
Note: Before you start off on your many promotional adventures (some listed below), be sure you have some On-Site things taken car of first. Complete the 2 Steps Below to take care of how your website looks and is read by not only your visitors, but the Search Engine Spiders, Crawlers & Bots that go through websites checking them, indexing them, etc..
- Create Clean Meta-Tags For Your Website! (Click Here)
- Create A Clean Robots.txt File! (Click Here)
You can use this
Keyword Cleaner Tool to help you out along the way!
Once you have completed the above, continue on to read about several different ways to promote your store..
You can pay for visitors to come to your website by running a campaign on services such as
Google Adwords,
Facebook Advertising,
7Search,
Bidvertiser &
Perfect Audience. These campaigns can be highly targeted and bring great results, just be sure to budget for them as if you get carried away with yourself, you could find your bill build up quicker than you might think. These services allow you to Bid for Clicks and/or Impressions by visitors from your targeted country, age group, niche, and more.
You can pay for Ad Space on other websites directly, there are lots of webmasters selling both Banner & Link Space on their websites. Have a look at the 2 lists I have put together for you below, the first this of actual Ad Space you can purchase, the second list is of website areas you can look for lots more, visit each of them and look for advertising on websites in the Same Niche as yours..
There is nothing wrong with advertising such as buying Link Space, Banner Space, "Per Per Click", "Pay Per Impressions", etc.. but the thing is, when you stop running your campaigns, your visitors stop coming, and new affiliate members stop signing up under you. What you want is
Organic Traffic, traffic that comes to your website without you having to do anything to bring those actual visitors in. These Visitors / Traffic usually comes from Search Engines, others sources can range from websites, forums, etc.. where you have left links. Below I have listed some services you can use to improve your Search Engine Optimization and increase your traffic for long term, best results.
There are many websites like the above offering SEO Services, just be sure to check out their methods and reputation and your happy with how they promote your website before you order. As well as the above mentioned Services, below I have listed some website areas you can look for even more promotion..
As I already mentioned a couple of times, Social Networking is important, earlier you set up your Social Network Profiles and also added some Social Network Sharing Tools, now this part is about doing and/or paying for others to use social networking methods to promote your website. Search Engine use Shares, Tweets, Pins, +1s, etc.. (Social Signals) as one of their ways to tell if a website is popular, if you have these going on along with your other promotion methods, it helps boost your rankings.
Listed below you will find website areas with lots of different Social Network Services on offer. One thing i would like to say is that, you will see lots of services for things like "5000 Facebook Likes", 2500 ReTweets", "20,000 Google +1 Votes", etc.. I do not recommend buying these type of services for your affiliate store and/or affiliate store networks, just look for the ones selling Manual Shares on their Profiles of your link(s). Here they are..
Another great way of promoting your website is buying
Blog Reviews and launching a
Press Release.
As I mentioned a bit earlier in this article, Google Page Rank (PR) isn't really something you should overly concern yourself about, but some people do like to try and increase it, so that's why I am including this little paragraph. At the start of your website, your PR will be "N/A", this will soon increase to 0, you don't have to do nothing to get to this stage, by keeping your store live it will naturally progress to 0. The highest possible to reach is PR 9. To increase your website's Page Rank, you have to build links from other websites which have Higher PR than yours, websites with the same PR as you can be ok too providing they will soon increase too, but that's not a definite. Page Rank can also decrease just as much as it can increase so continuing to build High PR links will ensure your keep on track with it. The links you build should Not be "nofollow" and the pages they are on should be Indexed by Search Engines (Google particularly). You can check your Page Rank using
This Tool.
So now I have went through some different promotional methods with you, provided you with links to several services, marketplaces & forums, as well as given you some tips and information, before I bring this guide to a close, check out the next step for some promotional methods that wont cost you a penny, but can still get you great results.
10) Further Store Promotion (Free)
Promote Your Affiliate Store on Forums: There are lots of Forums around the net, and most of them in the niche you are in, allow the use of a Signature, a block of text with link(s) that sits below all of your posts. Have a look around for some Active forums that allow signatures, then sign up and start posting around. Post unique, helpful content and make replies daily, this will bring a lot of attention to your Store Link. Some forum signature links are "nofollow", this means you will Not benefit from that page's search engine rank, etc.. but with All forum signatures, if you are active, and make good posts, you will get visitors from actual clicks on your link. You will have to reach a certain amount of posts on most forums before you can add a Signature, but this is usually only around 20 - 30 Posts and after you reach that amount, the link you add, still goes onto those previous posts you made. Be sure to fill out your profiles on the forums you join with an Avatar, etc.. as this makes your posts look more professional.
Promote Your Affiliate Store on Blogs: There are also lots of Blogs around on the net, search for Blogs that are in the same Niche as you, and a lot of them allow you to leave a comment, and with the comment you can add a Link with Anchor Text. Post a unique, helpful comment on several blog entries and as the Name, put your Keyword, for the Website, add a link to your store. Some blog comment links are also "nofollow", meaning you Don't benefit from that page's search engine juice, but there is nothing wrong with having a mixture of links with both attributes attached. Blog Commenting will help your store's SEO as well as getting visitors from people that click your links. Most blogs will put your comments into a moderation queue to ensure its not spam, as long as your comments make sense, are unique, are relevant to what the entries are about and don't put your Link as the Name, then more than enough of them will get approved.
Promote Your Affiliate Store on Traffic Exchanges: You can earn your website views by viewing other people's websites. Traffic Exchange Websites are website where you sign up to, add your webpages, text links, and banner ads, you then use the exchange system they have to view webpages, click links, and /or click banners, by doing this you earn credits which you can then apply to your own with others earn. You choose the amount of credits to give others for clicking on your banners, texts, and viewing your pages. People have mixed views on wither these provide good results or not, but with anything, the more you work at it and master how to use them, you will get more from them. There is also the added extra of just being able to pay for credits.
So I think it is time to bring this Article / Guide to an end..
Please carry on reading though as following the tips are very important for you and your store.
It is very important to stay connected with the SEO Clerks & Freelancing Community. Why? Well, staying in touch with other members that are doing the same as you, using the same services as you, trying the same promotion methods as you, and that have the same goals as you, can help a lot because sharing information and viewing whet they are sharing is how you find out about all the latest and most popular services, promotion techniques, website & software updates & more. I strongly suggest connecting with most, if not all of the following Social Network Websites..
You will learn so much from just getting involved in a Forum Community, this SEO Clerks forum is not only a great place to talk about SEO, Promotion, & Web Building, but also full of members running affiliate stores also and everyone can learn from each other.
I hope you liked my Article / Guide and found the information, links and resources helpful. If you have any questions about anything I have wrote in this 10 Step Guide, or just want to add something to it, then feel free to reply below with whatever is on your mind.
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