Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5b

March 15, 2008 Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing Course

Location, location, location.

In real estate the absolute most important factor is location.

A business is no different. Pick the wrong location and you could be doomed. Gus’ Fried Chicken in Memphis is world famous for its fresh fried chicken. Located downtown on main street, Gus’ is always packed with locals and tourists who’ve heard the lore of Gus’ Famous Fried Chicken.

The bad thing is Gus’ isn’t really that good. Their sign says it was voted the best fried chicken in the world, which is hard to believe because it isn’t even the best in Memphis. The best is Uncle Lou’s fried chicken. Hands down, no contest, the absolute best fried chicken in the world. Everyone I’ve taken there absolutely LOVES it. In fact the Food Network is doing a special on Uncle Lou’s chicken that will air this summer.

But why aren’t tourist flocking to Uncle Lou’s? Location, location, location. It isn’t downtown like Gus’, in fact is in a fairly unsavory part of town. Therefore his business will never be as successful as it could be.

So as we are planning our affiliate marketing business, choosing the proper location is very important because at the end of the day no matter how incredible our chicken taste, if people can’t find it we won’t make any money.

So let look examine the different location choices for our affiliate marketing business.

Blogs
Setting up a blog is quick and easy. Lately a lot of gurus are recommending using a blog as a first step. Caroline Middlebrook wrote a great ebook on setting up niche websites.

It is a great FREE ebook that teaches you everything you need to know about getting your wordpress niche site up and running.

Here are a few examples:
The Airplane Blog - by Gary Conn
History of Elvis - by Mark Mason

The Airplane Blog is a great example. Notice how Gary uses posts to generate mini-articles. Each post helps build a relationship with his customer and demonstrates his expertise within the industry.

History of Elvis on the other hand doesn’t take full advantage of the blog platform. If the purpose of the site is to sell Elvis memorabilia then I think a more straight forward content site would be more suitable.

Blogs are great for building a relationship with your visitors. By providing fresh content regularly you encourage your readers to stop by frequently. This works well for visitors in the research phase of the buying cycle. For example, buying an airplane requires a LOT of research. So The Airplane Blog provides news, reviews and ads for planes for sale.

Typically affiliate programs aren’t suited for blog-style sites. With most affiliate programs, you want to capture visitors who are in the buy phase of the buying cycle and therefore need a simple nudge in the right direction. For example, someone who searches for “Elvis vintage albums” is ready to close the deal. A simple list of albums and a little commentary about the songs on each album is plenty.

So in summary, blogs are quick and easy to set up and work well for niches that require extensive research before a purchasing decision.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5b”

  1. Dominate Back Links ~ Daron on March 30th, 2008 11:45 pm

    Great blog. Good info, straight forward… just what I like. I combined your ideas with one very special (free) tool and my page views increased by 317%… which has led to an additional $434 this month alone.

    Dominate Back Links ~ Daron’s last blog post..Quality Comment = Quality Back Link

  2. Miclee Br. on May 10th, 2008 3:07 pm

    Helo Mike ,
    I like this blog , i juz red “About” you. Yeahh rite , lets learn together. I ll b back here. Nice to meet u.

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