If you are wondering why this is so important for someone who may not use Twitter, here are a few important reasons:

1. Generates Traffic – There are many people who rarely check their RSS feeds these days, but they will follow your website on Twitter.   I don’t know that Twitter will ever completely replace the RSS feed, but for many individuals it already has (myself included for the most part).   There are others who will retweet your updates and fetch you additional traffic as well.   By not offering your content on Twitter, you are losing exposure for your website/blog.  
2. Brand Recognition – It is reasonable for someone to believe that if they go to twitter.com/yourwebsitename that they will see your website.  If they don’t, they may have trouble finding your tweets. 
3. Prevents Impersonation – Because many people were late to the Twitter party, there are millions of accounts which are “parked” where someone saves the name with the intention of selling it at some point (there are already services setup where people can buy/sell Twitter accounts).  That is the best case scenario.   We are currently dealing with someone who has our Twitter account (that matches our domain name) and is impersonating that website with it.   We now have no control over the brand until we can get Twitter to turn the account over to us.

Those of course are the major reasons, but I’m sure there are plenty of other options.   If you haven’t already, go out and sign up for the corresponding account of each of your web properties to be sure you have control over your name and your followers have access to your content!   I currently manage 16 different Twitter accounts and use Seesmic Desktop (free desktop software) to easily manage them all!

Note: If you’d like to follow Slick Affiliate via Twitter, you can find our Twitter account here, and you can also follow my personal Twitter account here!

You are reading Blog Tip: Register Your Blog’s Name on Twitter © 2009 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

For those unfamiliar with black hat SEO techniques, “black hat” is a term commonly used to describe SEO techniques that aren’t allowed by Google or other search engines.  Common black hat techniques include hidden text or links (an example would be making words white while on a white background so they can’t be seen by readers, but search engines see them), misleading or repeated words, cloaked pages, deceptive redirects, doorway pages, etc. 

On the flip side, there are “white hat” SEO techniques which are approved or allowed techniques that are encouraged by search engines.  Examples include sitemaps, meta tags, and of course optimizing your websites structure (header tags in the right spots, breadcrumbs, etc.) so search engines can read your entire site and figure out what exactly your site is about. 

I am fortunate in that I’ve got a few different highly competitive keywords where my sites have top rankings in.   While doing my standard review of my rankings (at least bi-weekly) for these keywords, I noticed a website had come out of nowhere and was now ranked higher than my site!   

After my surprise subsided, I began researching this site (which is an established site, but never ranked very highly before) and noticed that the footer of their theme had some links for the three most prominent keywords within this niche. Thing is, they were hidden using CSS, so they couldn’t be seen by human readers. 

This is the kind of thing that Google wants to avoid, so being the Google fanboy that I am, I went ahead and reported the spam to Google.   This is my third time doing this, but the first time the spam affected me directly.   The other two times I just discovered it on accident so I reported it.

You are reading How To: Report Competitors Black Hat SEO Techniques to Google © 2009 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

Here are the 12 included (click over to get the full descriptions):

1. Domain conferences
2. Annual domain registrations
3. Internet access
4. Home office
5. Mobile phone
6. Domain software
7. Domain services
8. Web hosting
9. Advertising
10. Meals and Entertainment
11. Legal expenses
12. Office supplies

Please remember to consult an accountant before filing your taxes.

You are reading Tax Deductions for Domainers © 2009 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

If you like their work, you may want to check out their 1 year anniversary contest they are running throughout the weekend.    All you have to do is leave a comment on their post to earn a point, then blog about the contest to get another 5 points.   The lucky winner will receive an iPod Touch and a free copy of their new Citrus theme, which is going to be released in the next couple of weeks ($99.00 value I believe).

You are reading Unique Blog Designs Offers a Contest © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

Basically what Peel Away Ads is designed to do is draw a readers attention to the top right corner of your blog, then when someone clicks on it, they are shown your advertisement.   I’m sure you can imagine the possibilities for this, ranging from promoting your affiliates to actually promoting internal pages of your website.   If you are an affiliate marketer and want to use this as a strategy on your landing pages, you could do that as well, even if you aren’t using WordPress!

Obviously there are a lot of reasons to love Peel Away Ads, but probably the best is the price!   Right now it only costs $37.00 and comes with a money back guarantee, making it a no-risk purchase.

You are reading Offer Attractive Ads with Peel Away Ads © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

Okay, so I told you I picked up the City Revolution theme and set off to work.   After about a week of writing off and on for the site, I noticed I had a LOT of content, most of which can be found on WordPress pages.   That was the easy part since it was a local GEO domain and I didn’t have to research much to create the content!

Once you’ve got your content in place, the next step is usually to monetize the website.   The first thing I did was research payout percentages on affiliates.   In the case of Iowa Guide, I knew that these travel companies compete pretty heavily for affiliates, so I decided to start there.  Between Priceline, Expedia, and Travelocity, I had three good choices, but I ended up going with Priceline because they were able to build a page directly into my website (sort of).  This way visitors would be able to browse for discount hotel rooms from what appeared to be within my site.  You can check out the Iowa Hotels page and probably not tell that it is actually hosted on Priceline’s servers, because it was built around my site’s layout, including my menu.

With Priceline, I was also able to get affiliate links for their airline and car rental services, but at this time these links will take readers over to their site to search.   Hopefully someday I can do the same for both airlines and car rentals.

Once that was done, I then spent some time looking for other affiliate opportunities and found companies such as Ticketmaster and StubHub for people looking for sporting events and concert tickets.

Once the site is setup, or at least looking respectable, you can then start your campaigns to make some sales.   The travel industry is an expensive one to compete in, but the payouts are huge if you find a good niche.   Currently I’m using PPC to generate additional traffic, then attempting to funnel it to a Hotels page which helps make the sale, then send readers to the hotel page that Priceline built.   I am also going to be adding a post or two each week to grow the sites presence in the search engines and remind Google that the site is active.

You are reading How to: Monetize a GEO Domain with Affiliate Marketing © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

While finishing my WordPress eBook over the past few weeks, I’ve also been throwing together a new informational/reference website named Iowa Guide, which is in the process of being monetized with affiliate marketing.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice when visiting the website is the incredible logo (courtesy of Mark) and the beautiful theme it uses (at least in my opinion).  Recently Brian Gardner released a new City Revolution theme which was designed specifically for these types of portal websites.   One of my favorite things about this theme is that it contains a drop-down menu for both the pages and the categories, which isn’t something you see very often.  It also does a great job of maximizing screen real estate, which is something I really appreciate.

Why I picked this domain? I am fortunate to own a number of GEO domain names in both the dot com and dot org extension.   As someone that is located in Iowa, I felt why not start with developing one from Iowa?  I already know my way around pretty well, and live near most of the states attractions and other things I’d want to write about.  Besides, now if I were to visit a restaurant, hotel, or other landmark and then write a review of it, that is a business expense!! 

For this particular domain, I was unable to obtain the dot com extension, but I’ve found that with Geography-based domain names, sometimes you have an advantage with dot org.   Dot org has developed a strong trust with internet users because it is traditionally used to house non-profit organizations.  With dot org, readers feel more trustful because org domains are typically informational and usually aren’t trying to sell you something.

In my next post, I’ll be talking about how I’m monetizing this domain name with affiliate marketing.

You are reading Introducing IowaGuide.org © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

Joel Comm, the Google AdSense expert, is the only person that I know of that meets this criteria.   Joel is the author of AdSense Secrets, which is a close to 250 page eBook designed to teach you everything he knows about Google AdSense.   That is right, I said almost 250 pages!

Chances are if you’ve read AdSense tips by the many pro bloggers and other “experts” on this subject, they got their information from this Google AdSense bible.  I’ve been reading about 5 pages a day and working my way through this document for a few weeks now and finally finished it.

I have to say that this book was the best $9.95 I spent over the past few months and has really opened my eyes to some additional opportunities that AdSense users have.   I am hoping to discuss some of these strategies over the coming months after I’ve put them to good use, but in the meantime I wanted to make sure you guys knew that AdSense Secrets was out there at an incredible price.   Oh, and don’t forget this could be considered a business expense. 

You are reading Learn to Maximize AdSense Income with AdSense Secrets © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

July Affiliate Marketing Income Report

So, how’d I do?

• E-Junkie – $1916.60 ($1279.10)
• Clickbank – $181.90 ($159.64)
• Commission Junction – $0.00 ($4.79)
• Amazon Associates – $10.50 ($0.54)
• eBay Partner Network – $122.88 ($195.31)
• Other Miscellaneous Affiliates – $776.00 ($398.35)

• Gross Income: $3,007.88 ($2,037.73)
• Advertising Costs/Banners Purchased: $680.20 ($108.00)
• Total Net Income: $2,327.68 ($1,929.73)

**All numbers in quotes represent the previous months income figures**

July was a very interesting month for me personally.   I dropped promoting some of my BANS sites to see what would happen and it definitely made a difference in a bad way.  BANS is still generating great income though without purchasing PPC income and everything after the first three months has all been pure profit.   I always said that my goal with BANS was to get domains to pay for their own renewals so I can grow my domain portfolio (sitting at about 250 right now).   Going forward, my plan is to take my BANS income and start renewing the domains I want to keep now so that I won’t have so many come up for renewal all at once.  Google also trusts domains renewed out more than a year or two so this may have a positive influence on my site rankings as well.

The other thing you’ll probably notice right away is that both my E-Junkie income and my miscellaneous affiliate accounts both went up quite a bit.   My hope is that this is a trend that will continue, though I haven’t been able to pinpoint which changes made the big difference.   If I figure that out, I will share my findings in a future post!

You’ll also notice the expenses went up quite a bit.   For one, I had a number of domains come up for renewal.  Also, due to my lack of design abilities, I have been purchasing some new logos a few of my sites, and I also managed to make a couple significant domain name purchases that I am REALLY excited about.  I won’t be releasing any details at this time, but I have possession of the domains and will let you know when there are details to announce.

Expectations for August’s Online Income

I mentioned last month that I had a big project I was working on through July, and a couple of days ago you probably saw my announcement of that project, which was the Success with WordPress eBook.  Sales have been good so far and those that have read the eBook have given it some great reviews, so I hope this trend will continue (this income wasn’t disclosed above because it isn’t affiliate generated income).   Remember, even if you don’t want to purchase the book, you can make some extra income by promoting Success with WordPress.  See the affiliate page for additional information.

For the month of August, my hope is simply to get these two new domains developed and started generating some income.  In the meantime, I’m hoping my existing affiliate sites and blogs will continue to generate a similar income to July’s income.

You are reading Affiliate Income Report – July 2008 © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials

There are actually 8 reasons listed, but I wanted to point out a few important ones that I think people fail to think about:

Links are one-way. Some SEO experts believe that search engines downplay reciprocal links in their results calculations. While reciprocal links can still be valuable, they don’t count as much as one-way links to your site. Article directories give you a one-way link.

Links are guaranteed. If you’ve never asked a webmaster for a link before, it can feel a bit intimidating. But when you submit articles to directories, you know you won’t get turned down. Seeing those backlinks show up in the SERPs is a nice confidence booster, especially if your site is brand new. As long as your articles are of good quality, they will also send you targeted visitors for a long time to come.

Links per page are fewer. This is a little known, but valuable benefit. Some SEO experts believe that the higher the number of links per page, the less SEO value each link will have. But the link back to your site in an article directory is usually only one of only a few links on the page.

Backlinks soon multiply. Article sites exist for a reason – to provide other webmasters with access to free, quality content. So just one article, in just one directory, can actually turn into hundreds of links, as webmaster after webmaster finds your article and uses it.

If you’d like to read more about article marketing, I recommend you check out Josh Spaulding’s Article Marketing Domination eBook.

You are reading The SEO Benefits of Article Marketing © 2008 | Slick Affiliate | Blog Tutorials