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Increasing Revenue with Your Current Traffic: An Affiliate Marketing Workshop - Ryan Guina
1. Increasing Blog
Revenue Through
Optimization
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
2. Raise Your Hand if…
You want to make more money
Your traffic has flatlined
Your revenue has plateaued
Photo credit: Dino8.
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
3. Principles of Generating Revenue
Trust
Traffic
Advertising
The Right Ads
In the Right Place
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
4. Why Should We Trust You?
Show – Don’t Tell
Who Are You?
Media Mentions
Social Proof
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
5. Trust – Personal Touch
SmartPassiveIncome.co
m PTMoney.com
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
6. Trust – Media Mentions
GoodFinancialCents.co
m PTMoney.com
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
7. Trust – Social Proof
SmartPassiveIncome.co
m GetRichSlowly.org
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
8. Trust in Design
Avoid
Too many ads, especially
above the fold
Misleading ad placement
Can Negatively Affect:
User experience
SEO http://searchengineland.com/too-many-
ads-above-the-fold-now-penalized-by-googles-
page-layout-algo-108613
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
9. No Traffic = No Revenue
Photo credit: Nicholas_T
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
10. Healthy Mix of Traffic
Repeat Visitors
Referral Traffic
Search Engine Traffic
Social Media Traffic
Newsletters
Photo source
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
11. Know Your Audience
Who is your audience?
Are you writing for them?
Are you solving their
problems?
Examples:
Credit card ads on debt free
site = bad
Credit score ads on debt
free site = helpful
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
12. Targeting is Essential
Can you identify the top 10
TRAFFIC pages on your site?
Can you identify the top 10
REVENUE pages on your site?
How about the top 20? 50?
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
13. Optimize Current Traffic
Know Your Money Makers Increase Traffic to these Pages
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
14. Know Your Money Makers
Determine High Traffic Pages
According to Google
Analytics or other Analytics
program
Determine Which Pages Bring
the Most Revenue
Use sub-tracking on affiliate
links
Link AdSense to Google
Analytics
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
15. Increase Traffic to Money
Makers
On-Site Referral Traffic
Internal links from high
traffic pages
Navigation Links (nav bar,
sidebar, footer)
Optimize for SEO
On and Off Page SEO
Internal Links
Guest Posts
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
16. Increase Revenue on Money
Makers
Optimize Advertisements
Add or remove
advertisements
Replace low performing ads
Optimize ad location
Try new affiliate programs
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
17. Ways to Make Money Blogging
Focus on what we can scale
Pay Per Click Ads
CPM Ads
Affiliate Programs
*Text Links / Sponsored
Posts
* Text links and sponsored posts have inherent risks; not recommended for all blogs
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
18. Pay Per Click Ads
AdSense
Rate Charts (Interest,
mortgage, insurance)
Widgets
Chitika
Kontera (in content links)
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
19. AdSense Heat Map
Old Heat Map
Darker orange = higher New Heat Map:
performance Highlight Content
Old heat map New heat map
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
20. Increase Pay Per Click
Revenue
Traffic Volume
Consider additional placement on
high volume pages
Placement
Pay attention to heat map
Dedicated landing pages (ex:
rate charts)
Site Content
AdSense and some other PPC
ads are contextual
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
21. CPM Advertisements
Usually sold per 1,000 page
views
Banner Ads
Widgets
Premium locations earn more
Above the fold
Have primary and backfill ads
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
22. Increase CPM Revenue
Sign up for quality CPM
programs
Niche programs are best
(higher payouts)
Use an ad server such as
DoubleClick
Automatically optimizes
impressions based on
payout
Sell private banner ads for flat
rate
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
23. Affiliate Programs
Performance Marketing
Commissions for sales of
products and services
Pay per lead
Example Companies:
Amazon Associates
Commission Junction
LinkShare
CardSynergy
Google Affiliate Network
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
24. Affiliate Marketing:
Focus on Helping Your Readers
Be Genuine
Focus on programs you use or
recommend
Don’t promote something you
wouldn’t use
Free programs that help users:
Mint.com, Credit Karma,
Credit Sesame, Manilla
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
25. Test!
Analyze top traffic pages for
possible affiliate placements
Try new affiliate programs
Compare performance across
different programs
Increase high performing
ads
Remove low performing ads
Use sub-tracking
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
26. Affiliate Marketing:
Volume Matters
Higher volume generally means
more revenue
High dollar, low volume items
are also good
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
28. Higher Payouts on Affiliate
Programs
Build relationships
Companies often reward
loyalty
Ask for performance bonuses
Ask for a higher payout
Compare payouts at different
networks
Move networks
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
29. Affiliate Marketing:
Finding Balance
You can’t promote everything
Stick to programs you know,
trust, and use
Balance frequency of
promotional content
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
30. Text Links and Sponsored
Posts
Text Links Know the Risks!
Sidebar (home page or site Google frowns upon selling
wide) text links
Widgets Can hurt page rank and/or
In-Content (Pay Per Post) traffic
Can appear spammy when
Private Sales or Brokered overdone
Text Link Ads, LinkWorth Sponsored posts can hurt
credibility / reputation
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
31. Start Small, Then Scale
Identify top Top 10 Traffic
Pages
Optimize those pages for on-
site revenue
Boost those pages by
optimizing other on-site content
for traffic and SEO
Repeat for Top 20, then Top 50
pages
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
32. Monthly & Quarterly Reviews
Go through Analytics and
repeat the process for top traffic
pages
Periodically look for new
advertisers in affiliate programs
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
33. Advertising Location Audit
PPC & CPM Placement Sometimes Less is More
Review advertising footprint Too Many Ads Can Affect:
User Experience
PPC Placement
SEO
In content http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2124188/Goo
gle-May-Penalize-Your-Site-for-Having-Too-Many-
End of articles Ads
CPM Placement
Above the fold
Sidebars
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com
34. Affiliate Program Audit
Affiliate program review
Review top traffic pages for
opportunities
Place on high traffic pages
Use new affiliate programs
Deliver quality and quantity
Ask for higher payouts
Switch networks if
necessary
Ryan Guina – CashMoneyLife.com