Online Marketing Notes

Directory World


Here are my notes on what I've learned so far about online marketing.  They're kind of random, as notes usually are:

Pat Flynn is the creator of an EXCELLENT source of information on internet marketing called Smart Passive Income.  You'll hear me mention him here and there.  I've been listening to his podcasts and I found another podcast where someone else interviewed him and he talked about his back story, which I found valuable as it was the inspiration for this blog.  He started out taking notes for an exam called the LEED and publishing his notes online.  People started visiting his site.  He monotized that site.  "Monotized" means he gave it a way to make money for him.  There's a difference between having a website or a blog and having one that makes money for you.  The latter has been monotized so it brings in money.  Anyway, he monotized this site with his notes on that exam and then he wrote an ebook about it to help people pass the exam and then he had it re-purposed as an audio-book.  "Re-purposed" is when you take your site content and put it into another format like a Youtube video or a podcast or an audio-book.  It sounds like a good way to spread your ideas around and bring in some cash.  I'll probably do that myself soon; maybe with this site.

I found this great post on ProBlogger by a guy calling himself "the Blog Tyrant" with the following quote; some advice he got from his uncle:

"You must always have a short-term source of income that pays the bills, two medium-term projects that supplement the income, and one long-term project that's a year away from fruition."

You can embed affiliate links in your Youtube videos.  If I haven't explained it before, allifiate marketing - which is a VERY popular way to make money online and one that I intend to start working on as soon as I feel like I've got a good handle on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - is when you have a website with whatever kind of content you're interested in and on this website you also have links people can click on to buy products you like.  Every time they buy a product - or maybe when they just click on the link - you get a little money, like a commission on the sale.  Anyway, you can do this with Youtube videos.  You can become a "Youtube Partner", I believe it's called.  They'll put little ads in your videos and if anyone buys anything from those ads, you get a little money.  I was invited to become a partner based on my parody video A Walk on the Dark Side but then they rejected me.  I guess they decided Lou Reed'd be pissed if he knew I was makin' some money off his music.

Generating Traffic:
Write about things your passionate about.  
If someone comments on your blog, and they have one of their own, read their stuff and comment on it.  At least thank them for their comment on your stuff.  Always thank people.  
Have a solid understanding of who your market is, how they'll find you, and what problems you're helping them solve.

Affiliate Programs:
associateprograms.com
lifetimecommisions.com

Look for affiliate programs with recurring billing.  Make sure the products and services you affiliate for are relevant to your audience.  

Use Ping services.

Once you set up a website, create a fan page for it on facebook and invite all your friends to it.

Find high-profile people in your niche and try to add them to your contacts on Twitter and facebook.

These are five questions Pat Flynn says you should be asking yourself about your internet business:
Am I making a good first impression?
Am I giving people a reason to come back?
Am I giving people an easy way to consume my conent?
Is my content sharable?
Why am I listening to Pat?

This is from Pat's podcast in which he interviewed Glen Allsop from a viral marketing site called Viperchill.com.  This is a way to decide what kind of niche or affiliate marketing site you want to have:
Write down your fears, passions, and problems in life.  
Goonline and see if there's a big market of people who share those things with you.
Find a product that addresses those things.  
Build a website around those products.
In time, try to develop your own product(s) that address those things.

You can use Twitter and Google Trends to do market research. and find out what's popular.  "Market Research" is just research that helps you determine how much interest there is in the kind of business you want to have.

Check out Google Optimizer.