The internet marketing community is very similar to a huge school of fish that can turn on a dime.  A handful of gurus (top dogs– the visionaries) create, or are able to see a new sub-niche in the internet marketing market (people in the make money online business) and push some kind of new product around this sub-niche.  All of a sudden, the email autoresponder messages that everyone is subscribed to pitch this new angle to make money (these are IMs who signed up for the affiliate programs of these gurus’ products).  Then, a couple of lower-tiered IMs ride the wave and come up with their own product.

 Here are examples of past internet marketing crazes:

• Article marketing
• Pay per click/ Google AdWords
• List building
• Continuity programs
• CPA arbitrage
• Affiliate marketing
• Social Media/ Twitter  marketing

The latest craze to appear on my radar is content outsourcing.  And, for good reason.  Most aspects of internet marketing will require content creation.   Whether you’re trying to build a high PR (page rank) landing page for your PPC campaign, or trying to get your blog/affiliate website ranked high in natural search for your main keywords, you will need to create content:  blog posts, tweets, articles, viral ebooks, static pages to your silo website, free ebooks for opt in campaigns, and so on.  Well, this takes a huge amount of time.  And guess who has more time than you?  People in the Philippines and India.

The current trend is to outsource your content creation to the Philippines and India.  The special thing about these two countries is that many of their citizens speak, read  and write English.   The other thing is that their hourly rate is a fraction of what you would get if you were to hire a US-based content creator.

There are a couple of companies that specialize in outsourcing content creation to these two countries, and you can bet more will be coming.  Just Google “outsource article writing Philippines” and see what comes up.  I guarantee you that you will see more coming into existence in the coming months.

Outsourcing content creation is basically leveraging time:  let other people do the heavy lifting while you work on strategy implementation.   Plus, it’s a win-win situation because you are making life better for these foreign writers.  There are very few opportunities in the domestic job market for these people.   These people are thrilled when they are able to work for an American company.  The word is out that, if you find a very good foreign writer, treat him or her very well (pay bonuses).   He (or she) will remain fiercely loyal to you and will go out of his way to turn out great service.

So, if you want to dislodge yourself from the quicksand we know as internet marketing, take the plunge and try outsourcing your content creation.  The freedom will be exhilarating.  Finally, someone to shoulder all the heavy, time-sucking and tedious work!

Commission Blueprint is an affiliate marketing course comprised of video lessons, pdf files, and website templates.  It also includes the use of various keyword research tools.  At $497 it isn’t cheap, but at least it’s not one of those recurring monthly membership sites that can cost a lot more over time.

I’ll explain their approach, and inject my experience and analysis.  Here goes:

As an affiliate marketer, what you’re doing is promoting other people’s products/services online and getting a commission for all sales you are responsible for.   Your sales are tracked by specially coded links that identify you as the referrer, and the retailer or affiliate program intermediate cuts you a commission check every two weeks or every month for the sales your links generated.

Here’s the challenge.  Most of the affiliate offers are in high-demand, high competition consumer goods and services categories, such as car insurance, bags and accessories, online dating, kitchen appliances, and so on.  Google any one of these keywords and you’ll see over 10 million competing pages.  If that wasn’t enough, the retailer itself that has the affiliate program  is going full-throttle online, promoting its products.  So you basically are competing with the product owner, who owns an authority site that you are not going to be able to outrank because it has an aged domain and hundreds if not thousands of indexed pages.  Give up yet?

So, how can you be successful in affiliate marketing, given this scenario?  In the past, it was easier because the big companies didn’t know how to do SEO for their sites.  Now in 2009, with all the SEO consultants and in-house SEO experts, the WalMarts and small-to-medium sized retailers are on par and even better at SEO and IM than your average, solo internet marketer who has bought 50 courses and ebooks and is on multiple email lists.   Yes, the picture turns more gloomy– the retailers have the resources and know-how to bury you in the SEO game now.

BREAKING UPDATE:   The internet marketing community is abuzz about a recent FTC (Federal Trade Commission) rule that is going to make the affiliate marketing game even more difficult.  Basically, the FTC is going to crack down on false and misleading claims in advertising.  No longer can you cloak an affiliate link and leave it at that.  You are going to have to place a statement on your webpage that has the links that specifically mentions that you get commissions if the visitor buys something through your link.  And you can no longer state “results are not typical” if you promote any kind of money making product; you must state something more realistic.  However, since this is a new regulation, there is going to be a time lag on enforcement/ penalties.  We’ll have to see how this rule pans out in the next couple of months, and adjust our marketing accordingly.

But, alas, some persistent IMs have found windows of opportunity.  Like a small group of wildebeests finding a small pocket of water in a parched desert.  Here’s the angle:

It’s all about KEYWORD research.  Apparently, it is possible to outrank the big guys in natural search if you create your landing page/ website around a long-tail keyword that gets a decent amount of clicks (500 or so a month) and a smaller number of competing pages (6,000 -10,000).

Secondly, it’s about analyzing your competition.  After you find a decent keyword that meets these requirements, you analyze the top natural ranking websites for this keyword.  You try to spot weaknesses in these websites that you can exploit, which will make it easier for you to outrank them.  Things like having the keyword in the URL, the Title, and in h1 tags; the number of inbound links, whether it’s in Yahoo Directory, and so on.   If you find a long tail keyword that matches the search and competition criteria, and find that three or more of the top websites have weaknesses that you can exploit, you’ve found your window to success.

The next step is to create a website around the keyword, find relevant affiliate offers (ClickBank, Commission Junction, Pepperjam, Shareasale, Hydra, AzoogleAds, etc.) and employ relentless SEO into it.  Watch it climb in natural search, and you’ll start seeing clicks on your affiliate links.

You will also need to work on your site’s conversion rate.  Do A/B split testing on its headlines, fine tune your copy, experiment with graphics and position of graphics, and so on.  Check your server logs to see where your traffic is coming from, and use this info to “work it” more.

That’s basically it.  To recap, CB2.0 says to focus on long-tail keywords associated with a monetizeable sector (one that has a decent number of potential affiliate offers) that have low competition and decent amount of searches each month.  Create a website/blog around said keyword; preferably using it in your URL.  Embed it with affiliate offers.  Then, pour on the SEO– article marketing, blog posting, getting inbound links, etc.  Play around with headlines, graphics, and copy to get the highest conversion rate possible.  Rinse and Repeat– create one of these sites a month, and wind up with an empire of sites that collectively bring in $thousands a month for you on autopilot.  Best thing about it– NO PAY PER CLICK COSTS.  Just the cost of your time.

By the way, the software the CB2.0 system highly recommends is Market Samurai.  It does all the keyword analysis I mentioned here.

So, what are you waiting for– get to work!

Here are the major launches in recent weeks.  All except the last are being promoted as re-vamped versions of current courses:

• Affiliate Classroom 2.0
• Commission Blueprint 2.0
• StomperNet
• Jeff Johnson’s Underground Training Lab
• Internet Marketing Masterminds

As I keep mentioning on this blog, internet marketing can be like getting caught in a spiderweb:  you’re hit with so many professionally copyrighted sales pages (mind you, from internet marketing experts) and emails that offer hard to resist incentives to purchase the product.  As if this weren’t enough, you get hit with a slew of emails from joint venture partners offering juicy bribes to get you to order through their link.*

*the gurus usually have contests for their affiliates/JV partners to see who can get the most sales and commissions, and pay handsome rewards.

Here’s an email from StomperNet announcing their launch:

We have what we think is the coolest launch ever starting today.

And you should be here, not because it’s cool, but because of
what it’s going to mean for you.

If you’ve wanted to join StomperNet, today’s the day
you’ve been waiting for.

And it’s going to cost you a LOT less to be a part of the
MotherShip of Internet Marketing.

Online Success for Less.

It’s got a nice ring to it.

But that’s not all: when you join, you’ll get more than
10 World Class internet marketing tools – some of
which have never even been introduced to the public
- for Free as part of your membership.

Let’s face it: for 3 years, at StomperNet we have given
our Members a pretty serious leg up on their competitors.
Now, with everything we have to offer in the New StomperNet,
you’ll CRUSH your competitors.

It’s more for less – we call it a Mafia Offer.

And today – at 9:09 am – we’re making you an offer you can’t refuse.

See you then.
Brad Fallon
CEO
StomperNet

And one from Commission Blueprint:

Hi Dan,

There has been so much buzz about this over the past
week or so, the likelihood is that you will have heard
about the imminent launch of our ‘Commission Blueprint 2.0′
this coming Wednesday…

When it goes live, you are going to have to act FAST
and we will let you know as soon as the doors open in
a couple of days time.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out
the videos that have been posted up on the site so far.

There’s an introduction to the course which also
includes two AMAZING free reports you can get your
hands on, which are already making people money as
you can see on our forum:

http://www.blueprintcentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=5925.msg46278#new

Then there’s the ‘exposee’ revealing our brand new
keyword tool, ‘Keyword Blueprint’ in action.
(this is guaranteed to blow you away)

…and now we have literally just uploaded a third
and final video answering ALL the questions that
they’ve been received about Commission Blueprint 2.0
over the past 7 days… Plus we give you a sneak
peak inside the course so you can see what you’re
going to get and how everything is laid out to help
you create a massively successful affiliate marketing
business in as short a time as possible.

I highly recommend you watch everything right now
and as I say, as soon at the doors open, we will let
you know. Here’s the link:

==> http://www.CommissionBlueprintTwo.com/video.html

Remember, we go live at 9am Eastern Time on Wednesday
9th September

thanks!

Tim & Steve

And here’s an email from a Commission Blueprint Joint Venture partner, Kabita Kalita (she’s pretty good):

Hi Dan ,

Here I have got another good IM product which i will recommend to you guys with confidence. Tim Godfrey and Steven Clayton have launched 5 products till now and none have even a single negative feedback.These two guys have launched commission blueprint 2.0 the 2nd version of their successful past product commission blueprint.

I was invited and authorized access to the product and I was thrilled to see the softwares and contents inside. These guys are well equipped and over smart. I can ensure you that your money will not be wasted and you will be in really good hands.

* SPECIAL ‘SHORTCUT SUPER AFFILIATE’ BONUS.WILL BE DELIVERED WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF YOUR PURCHASE*

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from CJ: Every product they promote, every keyword they spend money on, what their PPC ads say, how much they spend, every URL they advertise – as well as the organic competition level for each keyword.

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from ClickBank: (Same data as CJ…)

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from LinkShare: Ditto above

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from ShareASale: Ditto

* The Top 50 Super-Affiliates from MaxBounty: Ditto

In total, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of keywords – and thousands of different products – that the TOP GUNS on every major network are actively promoting.

And in addition to this, EACH keyword in every affiliate’s marketing campaign displays its organic competition level (keyword or keyphrase searched in quotations) – which is a gold mine for article marketers, conduit affiliates, SEOers, etc.

So, here is the bonus details.

[1] 5 Affiliate networks clickbank, shareasale, Maxbounty, commission junction and linkshare.

[2] 50 top affiliates of all the 5 above networks.

[3] Over 400 niches these affiliates are promoting successfully for more than 6 months.

[4] Their landing pages and keywords and yes…

[5] Ads and ad groups as well as traffic sources [mainly PPC]

[6] Plug and play.

[7] No more niche research.

[8] No more keyword brainstorming and PPC testing spending thousands of dollars.

[9] Great time saver and reverse engineering of profitable PPC campaigns at its best.

Read details here: http://commissionblueprint2-review.com

Thanking you,

To your success,

Kabita Kalita

If you’re new to this and are interested in signing up for formal training in affiliate marketing, you’re going to have to do your homework on these course offerings. Each has its own approach; most of them include having access to cool tools like keyword mining, spying, and testing tools. I believe that all of them offer a good product, as long as you actually put it to use.

Good Luck!

Since using it, my opt-in rate has increased by over 100%! What’s ingenious about this “pop-under” is that it loads at the bottom border of the screen, so as not to annoy your visitor by blocking his view. He can continue to browse your site with the Ultimate Footer Ad at the bottom; finish reading your great content, and THEN decide to opt in.

The problem with a lot of the other pop under/ hover ads out there is that they drop in and block the visitor from reading, forcing him to look at the intrusive opt in box that just slid down from the top. Well, this is not a good strategy because it may annoy your visitor causing him to leave your site; plus, if the delay is too short it doesn’t give him enough time to evaluate your “worth”. If he doesn’t know you well enough, he is not going to opt in.

Ultimate footer ad solves this by loading at the bottom and not blocking the view, but having just enough motion in the visitor’s field of vision to get his attention.

UFA can also be used for CPA offers and links to some of your products. It comes with pre-made templates, and instructions on how to create your own– awesome if you know how to create graphics in Fireworks, Photoshop or other image editing software. At a one-time price of $47, Ultimate Footer Ads is a steal. Check it out!

For those not in the know, a Google slap is when Google dramatically raises the cost per click of all your keywords, essentially destroying your PPC campaign.  For example, let’s say you put up a website about golf, and embedded it with affiliate links to golf products.  You use one of the site’s pages as a landing page (where the visitor is taken to after he clicks the AdWords ad link).  You have great content, and the visitor clicks your affiliate link for a set of golf clubs and buys it.  Your commission is $30.00, but the cost of the click was $5.00 for the keyword “golf clubs” due to the Google slap, and 49 other people clicked it before that one person actually purchased something.  So your profit is $30 – $250 (50 x $5) = -$220.

Affiliate sites are easy to identify.  Most of them are there to generate referrals, so they are embedded with links coded with affiliate IDs.  So Google is targeting them and is making it difficult if not impossible for these site owners to continue doing business through PPC.  And, it doesn’t matter how good your campaign is set up:  the word is that the best laid out AdWords ads (great landing pages, highly researched keyword lists containing only the highly converting words, high page rank landing pages) are getting slapped with unsustainable keyword bids.

Google is making a statement that it is not interested in having a bunch of affiliate marketing sites dominate its pay per click network.  This is amazing, because I’m sure Google gets tens of millions of dollars a month in PPC fees from affiliate marketers.  But the Big G is looking out for its reputation and long term growth.  It believes that if the user experience is trashy, it will lose money in the long run as people abandon using it.

I have said for some time that PPC marketing in most cases is a big waste of money.  This event proves it further.  You have to be crazy to think you can outwit Google.

Even though I’m not a big PPC marketing fan, I’m still worried about this news.    If Google doesn’t like affiliate sites in its PPC network, then what about its organic listings?  If the same “penalty” is applied to all indexed sites, there’s a good chance that affiliate sites may drop off the face of the Google earth in search results.  If this happens, it could devastate affiliate marketing.  The only other option is to have a large email list of prospects, and market to them directly, sending them content embedded with your affiliate links.

My advice is to not rely on one internet marketing business model.  Diversify; consider returning to the basics and investing in a “niche” ecommerce website.