… but it’s not actually all that easy either! I’ve been thinking about this subject for a while now. After almost 9 years working online, writing content for SEO has become second nature.

It was only recently when I’ve been trying to show a couple of people how I do this that I’ve realised it’s not all that easy, or obvious. So whilst everyone in the know is banging on about content being king, lots of people have been saying “Yeah, alright but what kind of content does the king bloody well want to see?!”

So with that in mind… here is Kirsty’s basic guide to creating compelling content that will help drive relevant traffic to your site!

OK. So lets look at this in two parts. Firstly, how you should go about writing content for your site in general, and Secondly how to come up with ideas for creating additional, relevant content around your chosen niche.

1. How To Write Your Site Copy
Lets assume you’ve sorted out your merchant. Lets further assume that your shiny and new site is sitting there resplendent with exciting products for your potential customers. All you have to do now is learn the ins and outs of SEO in order that you may have a chance of anyone ever seeing them!

Now, simply copying whatever the merchant has on their site (or having nothing at all in there) just ain’t gonna cut it. The King of content has outlawed the copy and paste marketing method, so it’s time for y’all to get creative. What I’d recommend you do is something a little bit more than simply re-wording your merchant’s product or product group blurb.

Oh, and obviously I’m writing this guide with no idea of your site structure or how / where your products are situated, so its quite general. Swap “product section” for “product” in the below if you will - it’s still relevant! Don’t worry, I’ll be answering questions at the end as usual!

So for each of your product sections, do the following: -

- Sit down with notepad and pen and have a really good brainstorming session. Try to imagine you want to buy the products you are trying to push.

- Write down all the search terms you’d personally use if you wanted to buy something from each of your product sections. Get REALLY detailed with this. Think of every possible different way you can to describe the group of products you’re trying to sell.

- Check your search phrases out on your local friendly keyword tool such as the Google Keyword Sandbox, and work out which of your search phrases is likely to be most popular. Also, you may find some additional search term variations. Add these to your master list for each of your product pages.

- Now it’s time to write a product section description! To avoid accidental plagarism I suggest you read over the merchant copy, then read your own list of keywords which is talking about all the different ways you could search for your products. Then try to write something in your own words (WITHOUT looking at your keyword list or the merchant site) that talks about all the benefits of the product, and try to weave in as many of the search terms from the list you’ve compiled as possible. If you want to include specific information, you can go back and get the details after you’ve written the main copy.

NB I’m not telling you to stuff in as many keywords as possible here, its really important to have a completely natural style of writing. Just keep your search terms in the back of your mind and when you get the opportunity - mention them!

OK, so hopefully by now you have an original and keyword rich product section description.

- To put the icing on the cake, make sure you include a really relevant page title. I see so many sites with poor titles, and it’s a shame because it really, really, helps with your search engine positions. Make sure you use your page titles to their very best advantage. Don’t just settle for “Product Name”. Really make the most of the opportunity to mention as many of your keword variations as possible.

i.e. Buy Cheap Product Name UK : General Site Topic Term : Product Name

OK, now repeat the above until you’ve written original content for all of your site sections. Now it’s time for step…

2. Writing Content Around Your Product Sections
I thoroughly recommend that you do more than simply write a bit of content for each of your site sections. There’s no way you’ve been able to cover all those wonderful search terms in your list from earlier. What a waste of an opportunity for some good traffic!

So…

- Get that list back out! Now, identify the search term areas you weren’t able to include in your site section descriptions. I’d recommend looking at terms that are looking for specific product features that match those you are trying to promote.

i.e. if your page is about acne look out search terms such as “solutions to teen acne” “natural acne treatment”

- You can now create some really genuinely helpful articles designed to capture searches from people looking for solutions to questions, or a specific product feature. Link to your product section from each of them, or direct to merchant… the choice is yours. And guess what? It’ll bring in traffic that converts like mad!

It will be so much more relevant than general terms to do with your product area, getting people to your site who really know what they want but don’t know where to find it. It’s simply up to you to show them the way by creating good SEO content to capture their search.

Integrate your articles into the main navigation of your site, and even link to them from the relevant product section. Trust me, this simple system will create a site with great SEO and will increase your chances to rank for lots of different search terms.

If you want an example of where I’ve done this successfuly, you may refer to the Lingerie Brands site I’m always talking about here. In particular, check out one of my Lingerie Brand Sections and see how I’ve written my content. No, I don’t always follow the steps I’ve outlined above - but I find content and SEO intuitive and really love writing it.

I really hope this general guide has helped. I’ve now realised just how difficult it is to write good SEO copy for many affiliate marketers. I’m luck enough to be able to push it out without thinking about it, and can generally write 1,000 unique words per hour. Gives me numb fingers though!

For further reading in this area, check out Kieron’s guide to getting traffic to your new site. He mentions some areas I’ve not touched on in this article which I think a lot of people will find very helpful.

I had a bit of an interesting e-mail from Mike recently asking for some guidance on whether his affiliate income aims were realistic or not!

Here’s his question…

Kirsty,

Thanks!

I think aiming to earn $100 a day is a good aim to have BUT (and lord you must have known there was a but coming). If you’re still at the stage of trying to refine your niche ideas and really work out where you will make this money from, you may be getting a little bit ahead of yourself. Don’t get me wrong here it’s absolutely correct to set yourself financial aims, something which has been a huge motivator for me. I don’t want to put you off, but you have to consider that lots of affiliates have been trying to make money online for a year or even two and still haven’t reached the goal you’re talking about. The thing with affiliate marketing is that it is all very much down to the individual. One persons ability to make $100 a day is very much different to another person with the same aim. So you might get $100 a day in your first month, it might also take 2 years.

Some of the reason for potentially taking a while (or never) to make affiliate cash is EXACTLY what you are facing right now… Where the hell do you actually make this money?! The other part is the really important bit of what I’m going to tell you – people set themselves these kinds of aims, fail to meet them because they can’t find their “affiliate mojo” and they get disheartened. However, in my opinion it can be overcome and your earning power speeded up if you deal with things in the right way.

So keep your $100 a day in your mind, but don’t focus on it. First of all….

Find Your Affiliate Mojo!

LOL. The first thing you need to do is find that product that’ll make you go “Yeah Baby, Yeah!” I always tell new affiliates its SO important to find an area that you are passionate about and try to find something in that area you think you can make work. If you try to do something you don’t give a toss about just because you’ve been told you’ll make a killing, you’ll get bored and most likely fail. It’s basically because you can’t identify with your buyer (something you get better at as you go).

A couple of things I’ve written about that might help you: -

How To Find Your First Affiliate Niche
http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/getting-started-as-an-affiliate/ask-kirsty-how-do-i-find-my-first-affiliate-niche/

There’s a fair bit in there that will try to give you insight into how you should think to find that first place to make yourself a bit of cash.

Top tips from Super Affiliates – I went to the Meet the Super Affiliates Panel at the A4UExpo last year and took a note of the success tips the 4 panelists were handing out.
http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/general/top-success-tips-from-super-affiliates/

Then…

Start Small And Build It Up From There…

One of the most pertinent points in the articles above was that you should start small and build your expertise around a small area. I agree wholeheartedly. Once you’ve perfected your technique in your small niche you will be able to re-use the same method to build traffic and drive sales in other areas – and scale up your income. Find one thing that has really worked for you and then use that to find lots of other little things that’ll line your pockets.

So, this has been an incredibly long winded way of saying this to you – Don’t focus on getting $100 a day. Focus on getting your first sale, then focus on how to get another one, and another, another, etc. Compartmentalise your aims. First of all aim for a sale a week, a sale per day, 3 sales per day, 13… and the $100 will take care of itself. The main thing is that you should always be setting yourself small goals and working towards them constantly. They work so much better than one big aim which is designed to achieve all your aspirations. Forgetting to take account of the small achievements can really drag you down.

Its really important to get your mindset right to do affiliate marketing. I know a LOT of people who could make bags of cash as affiliates and they know too. But they just don’t… because their mindset is wrong. They can’t motivate themselves to get to where they need to be with things.

So yeah, that’s how all the above can be summarised. “Yeah, $100 is no bother at all. BUT you need to make sure you motivate yourself to get it!”

We’ve got a new resident in the office here at Affiliate Stuff Towers, and I thought y’all might like to meet him. He’s been a valuable addition to the team, and he’s fitting in so well we wanted to introduce you to him. This is Dave, he turned up 2 days ago and has been hanging out with us ever since!

Isn’t he a beauty?! His appearance is all the more cool when you consider we’re in a first floor apartment. He’s come up to see what we’re about, and almost completely eradicated the ants nest that has been plaguing our kitchen since we moved in. He even headbutts the window to try and get the ants he can see wandering along our windowsill. They’re clearly worried. They’ve moved their main street from the outside of the window and into the “safe zone” with us. They can run… but they can’t hide from Dave! Other than pest control, Dave’s main duties are keeping us entertained when we get fed up with work. Whenever it gets too much we wander over to the window and shoot the breeze with him for a while. He looks suitably interested in our affiliate woes, and its a social arrangement we hope lasts a long time!

In Other News…
We’re settling in fine here in our little corner of Australia. The walk to the beach is a very taxing 45 seconds from our apartment, so Duncan has bought a surfboard and is currently attempting to procure as many bumps and bruises as possible in his attempts to become a better surfer. I wouldn’t mind, but I only sent him out to buy a waterjug? Clearly he got confused!

The Only Downside To Australia Is….
The telly is totally bloody awful. All they seem to have on is American crime shows. It’s depressing. Every night’s the same… “Shock Horror Murder Disaster!! Tune in again next week to see who gets disembowelled!”

The only shining light in the TV schedule for me is Bondi Rescue. As the name implies its a show about the lifeguards at Bondi Beach going about their daily business and pulling the incautious from Bondi’s amazingly treacherous waters. I gotta say the prospect of one of these fine specimens giving me CPR is almost enough to make me consider giving drowning a go. Phew!!

Check Out The Bondi Rescue Photo Gallery Here

Every Tuesday at 8pm I’m there front and centre waiting for my weekly dose of lovely lifeguards.

Hmmm…. Perhaps it’s time I got out a little more again eh? Panic ye not folks, my normal travelling service will be resumed shortly, lol!!

So you want to get in on some of this exciting travel paid for by affiliate marketing? Then this is a great opportunity to get into it!

It’s not often that I’m impressed enough to spontaneously advertise a merchant’s new programme and incentives, but those genius lads at Sunshine.co.uk have come up with a total beauty. Their new incentive means even total beginners are in with a chance of a free week’s holiday. And it’s Sooooo simple it’s almost painful.

For the last wee while Sunshine have been running a really simple series of “missions” designed to entice people who have never worked in the travel sector before into promoting them. Two of my friends have already won holidays just for setting up a site and popping up a couple of pages of content! I like them odds

Interested? OK here’s what you have to do!
First of all you need a site related to an area of Sunshine.co.uk. It can be about one of their resorts, holiday region, or based on a country.

Second, add two pages of content about their hotels or resorts. Then e-mail Chris, the friendly Sunshine.co.uk affiliate manager and tell him you want to be in on his holiday promo. More details on this and some other things you’ll need to tell Chris here.

Don’t Know How To Set Up A Site?
Don’t forget to read my Wordpress 101 Guide. It has everything you need to get your first site up there and fighting.

You don’t have an excuse not to try this, and I can assure you that the feeling of travel through the powers of affiliate marketing is one of the most deeply satisfying experiences you’ll ever have!

Greetings! Just a short post to see if there might be any Sunshine Coast residents I don’t know about lurking around in my subscribers?

I’m trying to organise a small and friendly Sunshine Coast affiliate meet on a weekend afternoon quite soon. I’ve already drummed up a handful of people, and thought I’d do a wee blog post just in case there were any affiliates or wannabe affiliates reading on here.

It’ll be very friendly (because I will be there, lol) so if you’re interested, don’t be shy and do drop me a line via my Contact Form or even leave me a wee message in the comments field below. It would be great to see anyone from the local area!

All together now!

“Happy Birthday To Me….”

Hurahh!! I have just realised that it is exactly one year to the very day since I started writing this blog. It only seems like five minutes ago since I wrote my first ever blog post about Google Checkout Not Tracking. A couple of weeks later I realised people might actually be interested in what I had to say about matters affiliate related when I wrote about my passion for this business and how I thought AM was The Greatest Job In The Universe.

Since then I’ve gathered over 400 subscribers (thanks guys) and have really enjoyed exploring my own love of the business. I have enjoyed helping other people understand the mechanics of affiliate marketing and attempting to infect them with my enthusiasm even more, and hope to continue doing so for a very long time to come!

To celebrate the blog’s first birthday I’ve commissioned a brand new custom blog theme, as the current one is looking a bit past it and old.

I’d also like to throw the floor open and see if anyone has any areas they’d like to see their roving affiliate reporter talking about. I’ve got lots of ideas for some great posts, and now that we are settled into our new home in Australia… I should have lots more time to get into a bit of blogging. So if you want to know more about anything not already covered, or if you’ve ever sent me an Ask Kirsty I didn’t get around to replying to… now is your big chance! Contact Me Here, don’t be shy!

We are celebrating here tonight with wine and fine food… all in the name of Affiliate Marketing.

Cheers Everyone!!

Alright, so after my outburst regarding someone ripping off my site content and structure I spent a bit of time having a good old think (It all got sorted out super quick, and Paul sent me a nice apology, which I accepted).

Anyhoo… after my post someone commented that it was my own fault for letting on to people about my site. They may even have loosely suggested that only an idiot would post their original ideas online. Another point was that people copy product areas and structures all the time. Business is business etc.

Now, it’s unlike me to agree with those who have disagreed with my POV… but these comments are actually quite accurate! Well, I dunno about me being an idiot but those who’ve seen me after 15 whisky and cokes might disagree

BUT (and y’all knew that was coming didn’t you?)

I have always held the conviction, no the absolute knowledge that even if I show people my sites, my work, my entire process, they will most likely not be able to monetise my ideas the way that I can. Why? Because they come from my affiliate mindset… not theirs. Everyone thinks differently about affiliate marketing.

You Can Steal My Sites, But You’ll Never Get My Brain!!
The true way to succeed is total originality. OK, you can make a buck and even a decent living by closely copying what others are doing… but you’ll never have that BMW in the drive or the beach house in the exotic location of your choice.

My convictions on this matter were strengthened considerably when I saw a site “inspired” by mine. Although it was very similar, I could see immediately it would…

a ) Get a google slap at the next Adwords QS festival as the depth of content I’d put into my own version was not there

b ) That although the general structure had been replicated, they did not have the benefit of my extensive experience regarding how consumers behave in a buying pattern within the site’s sector. This meant their deep linking, product placement, and link placement was totally wrong. So although the page generally looked like mine…. it simply wouldn’t push visitors through to merchant as effectively.

So What Does It Come Down To?
It comes down to creating your own process guys. Work out what you are interested in, find your own niche, get REALLY familiar with all the merchants in that niche and create your very own affiliate work of art. There are no shortcuts in all of this. Put your effort into something original, something you can truly call your own and NOBODY will be able to take it away from you…. because an original affiliate will never really lose out. People may try… they may even make money. But your income will be safe, because you’ll have ownership of your techniques and be able to replicate and scale to your hearts desire.

Your counterfeit affiliates will only have the scraps you leave behind.

Tsk, tsk, tsk…. Paul. What were you thinking?

What’s Going On?
Some of you will remember that I previously mentioned someone had ripped off the concept behind one of the sites I regularly post about on here. New design and graphics, but all the content that had taken me so long to write had been re-hashed and the site structure was strangely familiar. This lady was not amused. As soon as I made mention of it…. the site magically vanished from Adwords.

“Oh well.” I thought. “Perhaps he just got carried away after reading about in on my blog.”

Because you do read my blog, don’t you Paul?

Now ladies and gents. Once you’d put down to an over-ardent newbie getting carried away. But how might one feel if it happened twice? How would you feel if the same person did it twice?

We’d be Bloody Furious Kirsty…
Yes gang, you would, wouldn’t you? If you’d spent 3 months of blood sweat and tears creating a complex site, only for your content to be rehashed (not very imaginatively I might add), your structure stolen and your Adwords format virtually duplicated.

So Who Was It Kirsts? And What’s His Postal Address?
Well gang, despite having all that information… I’m not going to post it here. I’d rather give our enthusiastic young chap the opportunity to do the right thing. I don’t even like having to make this post, but unfortunately Paul hasn’t hooked up his e-mail address yet… so my (amazingly restrained) message to him earlier this morning bounced back.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I give all the information on this blog freely. I am open about what I’m doing in order to help others. Why? Because I believe in helping others to achieve the affiliate dream. I can’t be surprised this has resulted in someone stealing from me, but I hoped it wouldn’t.

The only solution I can come up with is to stop sharing this sort of information. To have my ideas stolen like that is deeply painful and upsetting. I don’t know if I want to be made to feel like this again. Poor old Duncan is now going to have to spend the evening creeping around and trying to sneak relaxing alcoholic beverages into my vicinity.

So Come On Paul… Do Everyone Else Who Benefits From My Open Approach A Favour - Do The Right Thing Before You Ruin This Resource For Everyone

Hey hey folks, I know I’ve not been a terribly prolific poster of late… but if it makes you all feel better, I feel bad about it I guess when you’re settling yourself into a new country you get a bit out of your normal routine.

So Duncan and I have now been officially “settled down” for two weeks. We’ve rushed around and bought exciting products such as more than one duvet cover, and have gotten used to being able to stand up in our house without bashing ourselves sensless on the roof. I’ve even gone mad and bought Duncan a beautiful second hand Gas BBQ so that he may cook beautiful food for me ($50 from e-bay for a gas barbie… what bargainous purchasing!!).

Now, just to be crystal clear here… exactly 16 days ago I was praying to god that time would speed up and making rash statments like “To F**K with travel. I’m fed up with all this, it’s pish so it is. I want an indoor bathroom. I want private space!! That’s it. No More, not ever. Na-ah, No Way”

Fast forward 10 days…
So What Have I Been Doing?

Yeah. That’s right. Looking for flights to some of the Pacific Islands. I’ve been thinking back all misty eyed on all my travels. Without the prospect of travel to somewhere warm and beachy, life lacks a certain little something. What’s that?

Uhhh…. yeah. Stuff like that. It’s official. My name is Kirsty McCubbin and it transpires that I am a travel-o-holic. At an age where a very significant proportion of my friends are out onto their second baby… I still need them exotic trips!

The Solution?

http://www.VirginBlue.com.au. Yup. That’s right, good old Ricky is going to sort me out. I’m now on the lookout to a cheap flight to sunnier climes. Somewhere. Anywhere. But I’m gonna have to book - a trip!! It’ll have to be a short one…

Ho Hum. Anyone got any ideas?!

So if you’re on the outside… the inner workings of the mind of an affiliate seems like a strange and mystical thing indeed, doesn’t it? Affiliates are quite clearly King Midas personified. Everything they touch turns to pure internet gold. They are blessed with an uncanny ability to make money. If you fail at affiliate marketing once, thats it. You should give up cos you’re clearly crap. Right?

Ummm… wrong!

I have an earth shattering nugget of information… Affiliates in every shape, size and form are normal human beings, and they make bad judgements at times as well. OK, they usually offset them with their good judgements. But, to kick off this insight into the affiliate mindset I thought it would be good to show you a few examples of affiliates having bad ideas or getting something badly wrong.

One of the best examples I found was from one of the most famous affiliate success stories - ShoeMoney Himself. In a great post, Jeremy details his top ten worst ever business ideas, including my personal favourite… an idea to garner advertising revenue from “Topless Chix In A Ferrari Cross Country”.

The Domains I’ve Bought Whilst Drunk pale in comparison to some of Jeremy’s bloopers! Well, except my idea for a sex toy reward points site… that’s kinda similar in the lameness stakes,

Affiliates make mistakes too. Big mistakes. Let us not forget the massive lapse in judgement which occurred when a Tesco’s affiliate decided to register lots of naughty domain names, attempted to argue at the High Court they were totally entitled to the £26,688 in commissions which Tesco reversed, and umm…. Lost!

Rights and wrongs of any of the above aside… you can bet that the affiliates who fell foul of Tescos are still making money and we certainly know Jeremy is living the dream. The point I’m labouriously trying to make is that all affiliates make mistakes and come up with dud ideas. What makes them a success is that they don’t let the failure define them… Why? Because they learn from every mistake and pass that knowledge into their next attempt. Affiliates do not give up.

Wow Kirsty… thats like, totally profound. What other qualities must an affiliate possess?
For a start… they don’t need money. It’s not money that makes an affiliate a success. It’s their success that makes them money. Understand?

And see, a lot of people manage to find something that will make them a bit of cash. But what next? You need the Imagination to be able to Replicate and Scale UP your success.

To do that, you need to have the Focus to find your “thing”, stick to it and do it well over and over again. Or you may be an ambidextrous affiliate… and have many “things”! Finding your money making method will not happen overnight. Life doesn’t work like that, so why should affiliate marketing? You must have tenacity to have success at anything in life.

And once affiliates have found their success… do they sit down? Nah… they proactively seek out new deals with networks and merchants. They ask for higher commissions in exchange for greater volume, they approach people with ideas, they network, they work bloody hard on their business.

And once you have all that… you’re home free, right? Nobody can take that revenue stream away. Ummm… well except if that method you sweated blood over is suddenly deemed to be wrong by someone like Google. This happens to affiliates all the time. Who can forget such hilarious Google japes as the Florida Update and we all know and love the Google Adwords slap. So affiliates have to constantly innovate to stay one step ahead of (or deal with) the changing requirements of the industry.

And that in a nutshell is what it comes down to. Work hard and don’t ever give up. I have a motto I bought as a painted postcard from an artist in Chiang Mai, which I immediately loved.

And that is what I am now. I’m an alchemist. Every time something goes wrong I look at my beautiful little postcard from Thailand, and I “feel” the affiliate mindset. I take what’s happened and turn it into a positive, the same as many other guys in this industry. Affiliate marketing is not an easy ride, and I take my hat off to all my affiliate colleagues for their innovation and tenacity. It humbles me every day, and inspires me on to greater things.

It’s all the encouragement I need! I hope everyone else feels it too