SEO practice

Why Affiliate Marketing is for Everyone

David Sharpe bio

Did you know that the global market for digital advertising and marketing is at $322.5 billion?

When you want a great way of earning money online, affiliate marketing is a viable choice. It allows you to spread the word about your business and the products and services you offer. With the right strategy, it can help you drive more sales.

Not familiar with affiliate marketing? Don't worry; we got you!

With this guide, you’ll learn about affiliate marketing for beginners. This will make it easier for you to earn more. Read on and find out more:

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

This allows an online retailer to pay for an external website a commission. They can do this whenever they gain traffic or sales from their referrals. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular money-making methods online.

The right strategy allows you to generate more leads and convert to sales. The best part is that it becomes a way of gaining passive income.

This strategy partners you with any of the 24 million eCommerce websites in the world. You can earn commissions by referring your website visitors to your partner’s products or services.

This is the simplest explanation of affiliate marketing. However, becoming successful as an affiliate marketer requires more training. We're more than willing to help you here at Legendary Marketer, it's our goal to help educate you on the highly competitive world of online marketing, after all.

If you’re using a blog, you become a selected company’s affiliate through their affiliate network. In some cases, the business will make you into their affiliate.

You can make money by putting a link, button, or banner within your blog post. This leads your visitors to your affiliate business.

Affiliate Marketing Tips

Now you know how this marketing method works, you can now establish your strategies. This ensures that you can build traffic to your affiliate within the first few months. You can also read our guide to ensure your affiliate marketing success.

Here are some tips you can use:

1. Make Great Content

If you put in your time, effort, and dedication to the project, you’ll make something amazing. The good news is that you need not reinvent the wheel to become successful. It’s because you need only ensure that your posts are engaging.

We stress to our students the importance of engagement in content creation. Without engaging content, your affiliate marketing campaigns will go slow.

Engaging your audience will encourage them to read more. This drives them to learn more about your product or service and turn them into referrals.

2. Use Effective SEO Methods

Like any blog post, you must use good SEO techniques to drive traffic from search engines. This will help you get a constant stream of high-quality traffic. If you want a natural way to rank for more keywords, you can use the skyscraping technique.

Skyscraping is when you look for the best content for specific keywords. Once you determine this, you can now make your version by making it better than the original. You can do this by expanding on these topics while covering anything missed out by other posts.

Before long, you become the ultimate source for that particular topic. This allows you to generate more links to your content. That’s what makes it a popular method if you want to build organic website traffic.

3. Use Paid Traffic

A lot of affiliate marketers use platforms like Facebook, Google AdWords. These platforms and other ad networks allow marketers to gain traffic faster. It may not be as beneficial as using social media networks and search engine platforms.

After all, this requires an initial investment that might not be an option for some people.

When using a paid traffic method, be careful when promoting your affiliate links. On social networks, most won’t entertain the fact that you’re publishing direct links to your offers.

That’s why you must send the traffic you gain from this method to your website’s landing page. This allows visitors to discover your affiliate links on their own.

One of our students, Aaron Szczokewycz, even generated leads without an ad budget on Facebook since he joined Legendary. As those converted to sales, he's made quite the profit with our help.

4. Make an Email List

By building a list of email subscribers, you’re investing in a guaranteed method of getting income. Always focus on good email marketing since it’s the key to your success.

Do this by investing in ideas like making giveaways for free e-books. You may also offer other things that persuade people to sign up, like coupons and discount codes. A customer who trusts a brand is more motivated to buy from your list of suggestions.

Achieving this means you’ll start earning money from the steady stream of affiliate sales. As soon as you invest in email marketing, you gain an edge over other affiliate marketers.

5. Upsell

This is a sales technique that aims to encourage people to buy something more expensive. You can do this by persuading them to get an item’s upgraded version or buy the add-ons. If you want to get commissions from a food processor, you can upsell a recipe book that the same company sells.

Upselling is your secret weapon as an affiliate marketer. If you use this well, you’ll end up getting more affiliate sales per visitor. This increases their value, especially if they follow your suggestions.

6. Promote Products You’ll Buy

If you aren’t interested in an expensive mountain bike, you’re unlikely to feature it on your blog. It’s because you’ll have a hard time persuading anyone to buy it. It’s especially when it’s a product you won’t spend a single penny on, now and in the future.

It’s always better to be passionate about the product you’re trying to get commissions from. This will make it more authentic to your readers, making it engaging. With that, it’s easier to persuade them to buy.

Start Becoming an Affiliate Today!

These are some of the things you can do to succeed in affiliate marketing. Use these tips if you want to make this your full-time investment.

Would you like to find a profitable business you can do from home so you can bring in much more substantial income? If so, I recommend you watch this free video which will walk you through our #1 recommended way to earn money online from home.

Click for free training

Try These SEO Secrets for Instagram

David Sharpe bio

Instagram is one of the most useful platforms to take advantage of in your internet marketing strategy.

In fact, 70% of US businesses are already doing so. It's easy to understand why business are using it as a tool when Instagram has 1 billion monthly users.

With so much content being produced, it's a little overwhelming to understand how to make your content stand out. There are many great theories and strategies out there. What one is proven to work the best?

By creating an Instagram SEO strategy, you can reach your target audience easier than ever before. The saying is, “work smarter, not harder”, so let's get you started with a smarter SEO strategy.

Instagram SEO Strategy

Creating a winning Instagram SEO strategy doesn't have to be all business, it can be fun too! You may be wondering what SEO even means. Let's break it down for you!

What Is SEO?

SEO is an acronym that stands for search engine optimization. It's a fancy way of describing the practice of taking advantage of internet searches. By understanding your audience, using keywords, and sprinkling in some creativity, you can use an SEO strategy to drive traffic towards your website.

Search engines will scan your website for keywords. Let's say someone just entered a search for “interior design trends”. If your website has this wording, it will show in that search.

Instagram + SEO

How can you take this marketing strategy to Instagram? Take advantage of using keywords in hashtags. Creating a hashtag SEO strategy will generate more leads and more engagement with your audience.

Using the right keywords in your hashtags will help your brand become more visible. Combine that with some great content, and you've got a recipe for success.

Build Your Strategy

You are looking to build your own Instagram SEO strategy, but how do you know which keywords to choose? Building any successful marketing strategy starts knowing where you are at, and defining your optimization goals.

Define Your Goals

Having clearly defined goals for your SEO strategy is important in understanding whether or not it’s worth your time. If implemented well, it always will be.

Before you begin rolling out a new strategy, it's important to create a list of goals, or things that you’d like to see improvement on. Some great goals to have when creating an Instagram SEO strategy are:

  • Increased organic traffic
  • Increased social media activity
  • Increased sales

In order to ensure that you reach your goals, you will need to know your audience.

Know Your Audience

Marketing strategies begin with knowing your customer. By knowing your audience you can tailor each post to your unique customer's needs.

By analyzing your audience's interactions with your posts, you can learn about them, and get to know them. By interacting with your audience you can learn important things about them.

You can learn things like:

  1. What things is your audience searching for?
  2. Where are your customers located?
  3. What motivates your audience to purchase something?
  4. What hashtags are they using?

Knowing your audience will assist you with choosing a hashtag that your target audience is searching.

If your target audience is orthodontists in New York, you probably won't choose #redpanda as a hashtag.

Learn From Competitors

By looking to other leaders in your industry, you can learn a thing or two from their internet marketing. Analyze what they are doing. You can learn from it what works (and what doesn't).

Take the best of what they do and tweak it so it's customized for your audience. Pay attention to which hashtags they are choosing. Which ones are driving the most traffic?

Not sure how to tell which ones are driving traffic? Search the hashtags your competitors are using, to see which ones are used the most.

Keep It Simple

Keeping your hashtags simple will ensure that they are easy to remember for your audience. Being easy to remember means that customers will use them.

Not only will keeping it simple help build your audience, but it will also help the aesthetic of your Instagram post. Having long or complicated hashtags can make your post look messy or unprofessional.

Less is definitely more when using a hashtag.

Let the Fun Begin!

Now that you know keywords are important, and where to look for them, it's time to start creating posts! How do you create posts with keywords that look natural? We are glad you asked!

Use the Right Amount

Remember how we said less is definitely more when it comes to using hashtags? Research has found that Instagram posts with too many hashtags, is seen as “spammy”. So how many hashtags should you be using?

There are many different opinions on how many hashtags you should be using. Some people suggest using a maximum of 30 hashtags. Others advocate that using the maximum is too much, and 5-6 hashtags are sufficient.

Regardless of how many hashtags you choose to use, the important thing to remember is to choose hashtags that are relevant to what your posting, and to your audience.

Be Creative

There are many ways to be creative with your SEO strategy on Instagram.

One way to take advantage of hashtags is to look to the days of the week for inspiration. Not only will using the days of the week keep you consistent in delivering great content, but it's also something everyone can use (AKA a great way to expand your reach)!

Here are some great examples:

  • Monday: #MondayMotivation, #MondayVibes, #MondayMood, #
  • Tuesday: #Tuesday, #TransformationTuesday, #TuesdayThoughts
  • Wednesday: #WednesdayWisdom, #WednesdayVibes, #WednesdayMood
  • Thursday: #ThrowbackThursday, #ThursdayVibes, #ThursdayMood, #TBT
  • Friday: #FeelGoodFriday, #Frinally, #FridayMotivation
  • Saturday: #SaturdaySelfie, #SaturdaySunshine, #Caturday (if you're a cat lover)
  • Sunday: #SundayFunday, #SundayVibes

Another creative idea is to brand a hashtag. Create a hashtag just for your business. Some great examples are the State of Michigans hashtag #puremichigan or REI's hashtag #optoutside.

Be Relevant

Remember to take advantage of those keywords! Take advantage of trending hashtags too – as long as they are relevant to what you are posting. If it isn't relevant to your post, your audience may view your choice as a spam attempt.

If what you are offering is keto coffee, you may want to choose hashtags such as #coffee, #keto, or #healthyliving. You wouldn't want to tag #starbucks just because it may be a trending hashtag.

Unless of course, it was relevant to your post. Maybe your business is partnering with Starbucks, and you are announcing that partnership. If that was the case, then using that hashtag would be appropriate.

Use a Hashtag Generator

Not sure which keywords to use for Instagram? Try using a hashtag generator. You can download hashtag generators for free on your phone. A simple one to use is #HashMe.

Once you enter in a keyword to search, the app will find you 30 or more hashtags that are related.

We tried it out and chose “cats” as our keyword. Check out some of the results below!

#cat #gato #meow #kitty #catofthedat #officecat #beantoes #purrfect #ilovemycat #catlovers

Work with a Marketing Firm

By working with a marketing firm you can learn the necessary marketing skills to thrive with confidence in the online marketplace. Working with an expert takes the guesswork out of creating a great SEO strategy.

A marketing firm can help you grow your business using online and cutting edge marketing strategies.

Inspire Your Audience

Using the right keywords is one way to encourage engagement from your audience. Your goal with an Instagram SEO strategy is to inspire your audience to take action.

Inspiring your audience could be as simple as getting them to share your post. It could be to get them to visit your website or buy your product. Inspiring your audience to action is also known as a call to action.

To make a lasting impression with your audience try something unique, like Disney.

Disney has always inspired us. They partnered with Twitter with the #ShareYourEars campaign for Make A Wish Foundation and raised over 3 million dollars.

Create a Winning Strategy

In order to create a successful marketing strategy in today's culture, you need to go where your customers are. That means going digital and interacting with your target audience on social media.

Instagram is a great landscape to grow your audience. There are many ways to incorporate Instagram into your SEO marketing strategy. One great way is to take advantage of the hashtags.

If you are looking for some more great marketing tips,

including how to make multiple high-ticket affiliate commissions each month marketing valuable products people already want to buy, watch our brand new free webclass while access is still free.

Click for free training

7 Best 2021 SEO Practices for Small Businesses

David Sharpe bio

64% percent of people rely on search engines to make a purchase decision.

Search engines play a big role in your small business' online traffic generation. If you are going to appeal to, then you need to utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO is the process of developing your online profile so that customers can easily find your business. While SEO is useful, the landscape around it changes rather often.

If you want to improve the success rate of your SEO for small business strategy, you must employ techniques that are up to date. Here are some ways you can work on your search engine optimization to get your customers to notice you.

1. Know Your Audience

The end goal of your search engine optimization strategy is to create compelling content that your target audience can discover.

Since that is the objective, you need to know who you are targeting to figure out how to best communicate to them. You have to understand exactly how your customers run searches on the web and the things they are looking for.

One way you can learn more about your audience is by studying the kind of content they like getting from you.

When you publish new material you can use online tools such as Google Analytics to give you more insight. That can be especially useful when picking future topics to write about.

Other insights you will get to find out include:

● The topics that get more readers and views (in the case of videos)
● What pages your audience spends more time on
● How many users come through social referrals

Social media platforms also have their own analytics tools that can help you gain insights into how you can better serve your users.

2. Page Speed Is Key in SEO for Small Businesses Strategies

One of the more surprising tips for entrepreneurs is that your page speed impacts how well you rank.

Page speed refers to the amount of time a user has to wait until a page on your website completely loads.

Google is on record saying that its algorithms use page speed to determine where you rank among other things. You, therefore, can't afford to ignore it.

One of the SEO best practices you can use to increase your page speed is to compress your files.
Look for software that can reduce the size of files on your website. You can use such software to reduce CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files on your website.

When it comes to images, use programs like Photoshop where you can better control the quality.

Another idea here is to reduce the number of times your page redirects users to another one. For every instance where that happens, your page will take longer to load.

Whenever you use images, understand that they also contribute to how fast your page loads. Use the PNG format for graphics and JPEG when uploading photos.

Don't forget to compress them to improve speed times. However, watch out that you don't lower their quality.

3. Use Evergreen Content

At the heart of your SEO efforts is the kind of content you use. When you use content that doesn’t appeal to your customers you will keep struggling no matter how well you tweak it.

It is important to use content that never loses its appeal.

Evergreen content is material that remains useful and relevant for a long period of time with little maintenance.

If you do it right, this kind of content will keep generating social shares, traffic, and occupy high positions in search rankings for a long time.

So, how do you create evergreen content?

Firstly, your content has to give your audience value while still being compelling.

Secondly, your content should have a heading that attracts the user's attention. Lists or ‘how-to' headlines tend to be the most popular. They advertise the content in a striking manner while suggesting that the material is easily readable.

Thirdly, your content should pass the ‘long-click' test for it to be evergreen. Whenever a searcher clicks on the link Google tracks the amount of time that goes by before they move on to the next link.

If they click your link and spend some more time on the page, Google interprets this as good material that has satisfied the searcher's query.

3. Keywords, Keywords, and Keywords

If you have ever made efforts to grow a business, the concept of keywords is not new to you.

Keywords are a mission-critical part of SEO as they directly influence how searchers find content.

When you want to determine keywords to use for your SEO marketing, you should start by doing some keyword research. Here, you look for the terms people use when they are searching for a particular subject matter.

Proper keyword research is useful in that it can either help you improve existing content or create relevant, new material.

Begin by identifying a primary keyword to use. Ensure it is a popular term to target a wider user base.

Whenever you're using the keywords you need to learn how to best apply them. Keywords should feature in the page title, a subheading, images, your meta descriptions and in the content.

Avoid overusing them (known as keyword stuffing) as Search engine algorithms torpedo your ranking if they detect any stuffing.

5. Craft Succinct Title Tags

A title tag is the main part of a search result listing that has a bigger font.

Title tags are the very first thing that searchers see about your business. They set the tone for what they should expect. A lot of attention and ingenuity has to go into creating them.

When you are creating title tags you need to make them clear. A good title tag is one in which a searcher knows what the content is about at a glance. A clear and accurate title tag not only communicates to searches, but it also signals to the search engine what the particular page is about.

Search engines limit the number of words in a title tag. You, therefore, need to learn the art of tweaking it to display all you want it to.

Generally, the limit will be between 60-80 words. You should target 50 words to ensure most of it is visible on different devices.

A good title tag starts with the most descriptive words or main keywords since it's unlikely they will be cut off. If you decide to include your brand name, place it at the end after the words describing what the page is about.

Remember to not overuse your target keyword in the title tag.

A title tag essentially gives you a chance to make a case for what your page is about. Since you have a very brief window, you need to emphasize to the searcher the value your page gives them.

6. Establish Authority

One of the primary goals a search engine is built to achieve is connecting users to the most authoritative information. Therefore, the algorithm works to find the most credible sources of information.

When a user runs a search query they expect the search engine to work as a librarian and find the correct information. Your content needs to show up at this point for it to draw in the target audience.

Creating top-notch quality content is one way in which you can increase the authority of your page and hence, the ranking.

The other way to establish authority is through links. There are two types of links; external links and internal links.

Internal links are those that connect different web pages of the same website.

When external links from sites with high credibility point to your website, its authority ranking will increase.

Similarly, many internal links pointing to a page signal to the search engine that it is an important page. That can improve its authority level.

External links provide more boost to your authority level than internal ones. The common practice is to use both when fashioning your content.

No matter what you do remember that it is not the number of links that is the primary factor. It is the quality of the links that should come first.

7. Ask for Customer Reviews

Reviews today have moved the word-of-mouth trust element to the internet space. As a small business, you should make it a habit to encourage your users to leave reviews online.

When a user runs a search, the local firms that have reviews received higher ranking in the SERPs.

One of the most essential reviews that Google uses to rank pages is Google Reviews. You should set up your business' Google My Business listing’ then get reviews to bump your ranking up.

Help Your Customers Better Find Your Business

Search engines have grown to become a powerful influence on customer behavior. People look for information to make decisions in their ‘I-want-to-buy' moments.

Your business must adapt and create a set of SEO for small business strategies that will contribute to its expansion and increase in revenue.

Legendary Marketer is on a mission to help you start or grow your business. To learn more marketing secrets and learn how to bring in more profit to your business watch this free video and learn our #1 recommended way to bring in income and grow your business.

Click for free training