This presentation is from Affiliate Summit West 2014 (January 12-14, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV). Session description: Everyone tells bloggers to “build a brand” – but how? In this session, affiliate veteran Rae Hoffman will discuss the ins and outs of building a branded blog and increasing its affiliate income.

1. Affiliate income
FROM A BRANDED BLOG
Rae Hoffman
AFFILIATE SUMMIT WEST 2014

2. RAE
HOFFMAN
Bookmark now
http://sugarrae.com/asw14/
@Sugarrae
http://sugarrae.com
http://pushfire.com

3. FINDING A NICHE

4. BRAINSTORMING
Your
hobbies
Market
research
Search the
networks
Your friends
hobbies
Niche
Ideas
Search
hobbies
Searching
Supplies =
demand
Research
periodicals
Accessorize

5. NICHE RESEARCH
SHOW ME THE MONEY
PPC Ads?
Multiple Programs?

6. NICHE RESEARCH
SHOW ME THE TRAFFIC
Keyword volume?
Upward (or stable) trends?
Good competitor trends?

8. NICHE RESEARCH
SHOW ME THE COMPETITION
Who is ranking?
What is ranking?
What is the barrier to SEO entry?

10. NICHE RESEARCH
SHOW ME THE POTENTIAL
http://sugarrae.com/19077

11. SHOW ME THE
ANGLE

12. FIND YOUR POD

13. HOW CAN
YOU BE
DIFFERENT?

14. ASK YOURSELF
 What content are your potential competitors lacking?
 What features are your potential competitors missing?
 What is your potential competition doing well that you feel you could do
better?
 Is there a missed demographic your potential competitors are failing to
specifically target?
 Are there any promotional avenues your competitors are ignoring that
you could rock?
 What voice is your competition using? Can you contribute a unique
one?

16. FIND YOUR
VOICE

17. CONTENT IS KING
(& Why that’s a bullshit mantra)

19. A singer is
only a
PERFORMER
…when she has an audience

20. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Main Page
About
Advertise
Privacy
http://yourblog.com/page-name/
http://yourblog.com/category-1/post-name/
http://yourblog.com/category-1/sub-category-1/post-name/
Disclaimer
Contact
Category 1
Category 2
Sub Category 1
Category 3
Sub Category 1
Sub Category 2
Category 4
Sub Category 1

21. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Main Page
About
Advertise
Privacy
http://yourblog.com/page-name/
http://yourblog.com/blog/
http://yourblog.com/blog/category-1/post-name/
http://yourblog.com/blog/category-1/sub-category-1/post-name/
Disclaimer
Contact
Blog
Category 1
Category 2
Sub Category
1
Category 3
Sub Category
1
Sub Category
2
Category 4
Sub Category
1

22. CONTENT OPTIMIZATION
KEYWORD TARGETING
Post
Content
 http://semrush.com
 http://raventools.com
POST OPTIMIZATION




Keywords
Meta
Description
Post Title
Post titles
Title tags
Meta Descriptions
Internal linking
CATEGORY OPTIMIZATION




Internal
linking
Intro content
Title tags
Meta Descriptions
Internal linking
Title Tag

23. Create AWESOME content
people want to find

24. SAY CONTENT MARKETING
ONE MORE TIME

25. There are two types of
content…
the content you want to write
and the content people
want to find - #truestory

26. What YOU
want to blog
about
What they
want to
FIND
What
makes you
$$$

27. Figuring out what content your audience
wants to find…
Google Suggest
http://ubersuggest.org
 How to
 Guide
 Review
 How do I
 Step by step
Mining Topsy
http://topsy.com
Reader Surveys
http://www.surveymonkey.com
Search Meter
http://wordpress.org/plugins/search-meter/
SEMRush
http://semrush.com

28. DEVELOPING A
SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGY

29. SOCIAL MARKETING
Shares &
Exposure
Branding
Signals
Sales
Social
Media
Links
Subscribers
Followers

30. INDIRECT
But one day it might not be…

31. The Curious Case of Google+
“Google +1′s Have No Direct Impact On Rankings”
(Search Engine Land – Quoting Matt Cutts
On August 20, 2013)
Giving a page a +1
!=
being logged into a Google account you heavily use and pad with
information about your interests and connections

32. If you are marketing on Insta when
your readers are 36 YO women
#youredoingitwrong
Know
Your
Reader
Demo

33. FINDING THE DEMOGRAPHIC
Research
Identify
Quantcast
Alexa
Media kits
Social
Gather
Twitter shares
Google+
shares
http://sugarrae.com/19711
Pinterest
shares

34. EMAIL
LIST
BUILD IT

35. At any point Google could come
along with an rankings tornado.
Would you be prepared?

36. “If you’re not
building an email
list? You’re an idiot.”
Derek Halpern
@derekhalpern
http://socialtriggers.com

37. WE’RE GONNA
MARKET LIKE IT’S
2016

38. ARE YOU A BRAND?
 Is your site name one of the top ten search referrers to your site? (thanks
not provided - check Bing)
 Does your site name appear in Google suggest?
 Does your site name appear in Google suggest along with your topic?
 Is your site name your top anchor text? (hint, for natural, kickass sites, the
answer is yes)
 Is your site more than 80% dependent on Google search traffic? (brand fail)
 Do you have a social following? (stay where your users are)
 Are you willing to be publicly associated with your site?

39. REAL MARKETING
Interviews
Offline efforts
Advertising
Press mentions
Guest appearances
Broken link building
Alternate medium content
Link reclamation
Sponsorships
JV opportunities
Networking
Being helpful
Real directories
Social authority

40. “Building links is easy”
~ No one ever

41. LINK BUILDING IS HARD WORK
External
guest
posting
Internal
guest
posting
Alternative
medium
content
Reference
links
Broken link
building
Link
reclamation
Google+
Social non
G+
Networking
Being
interviewed
Interviewing
people
JV
opportunities
Offline
efforts
YOUR
BLOG
Citation
monitoring

42. MAKE MORE
MONEY

43. GOT TRAFFIC?
Don’t rely on the sidebar
Track what works with SIDs http://sugarrae.com/9326
Split test ads
Master affiliate networks (lazy, but denial workaround)
Know your audience
In depth reviews that solve problems
User first - sales second
Never, EVER sell out audience trust to make a sale

44. SOLVE
PROBLEMS

46. THANK YOU
Presentation links
http://sugarrae.com/asw14/
Awesome advice for bloggers
http://sugarrae.com
Consulting for businesses
http://pushfire.com
Kicks in the ass
http://facebook.com/therealsugarrae
Ranting & cursing & football
https://twitter.com/sugarrae