EzSEO Newsletter # 74
by Andy Williams ez SEO
This week:
1. Pulling Affiliate Links Apart - Part II
2. Success Story with URL!..
3. Managing affiliate links with the .htaccess file
4. Other News
Hi again
This weeks main article will be of interest to all affiliate marketers. It is a method that can be used to centralize all affiliate links in one place, so that even if you have a particular link on 1000 pages, you only need to change it in one place to update the entire site when your merchant changes their link.
In addition, I have an update on an article from last week, plus a rare success story where the proof is given in the form of website URLs and screenshots - #1 on Google and Yahoo for VERY competitive terms is quite an achievement.
1. Pulling Affiliate Links Apart - Part II
Just a very quick addition to this article last week. A subscriber emailed me with this additional information on affiliate links. I have pasted it exactly as he wrote it. Thanks Stephen.
"p.s. about newsletter 73 - one of the things I think newbies are often uncomfortable with about dissecting an affiliate link, is whether they need to include the 1x1 tracking code. It took me a long time to realise that all I actually needed was the url to click through from, and that the image simply helped determine the ctr (Click Through Rate). Also, I think it is worth pointing out that some affiliate networks will not count clicks through unless they are linked from an approved domain."
2. Success Story with URL!
Brad Fallen is an old friend and subscriber to this newsletter. He is also an SEO guy with an amazing success story. After last weeks article on why success stories are so rare, Brad emailed me to tell me that he DOES show his money-making URLs. Here is what he said:
"With regard to topic #2 in your current newsletter, Andy Jenkins and I make most of our money from selling real products online. And, wisely or not, we do show our real URL's. I actually put my sales statistics in my last newsletter to make a point about conversion rates. My main site is www.myweddingfavors.com (#1 on Google and yahoo for: wedding favors. Sales of "real" products last month, $381,000). Andy's is www.european-wall-tapestries.com (#1 on Google and yahoo for wall tapestries)."
Well, Brad and Andy put together an SEO course last year that I have long been meaning to review. I guess the one thing that put me off was the mention of Traffic Equalizer on the sales page. This software is not one I recommend, as so many people are seeing their TE sites disappear, and from my own point of view, TE sites are generally nothing more than spam.
Despite this, I have monitored some of Brad and Andy's sites for the last year, and have to say, I am impressed. Not only are they targeting competitive keywords, but they are beating everyone else to the #1 spot, not only on Google, but Yahoo too. It really is an amazing track record.
In fact I am so impressed, I now have a copy of their SEO course and intend to write a full review of it (when I manage to get through all of the CDs). I hope to bring that to you next week if time allows. For those who want to see the proof, their websites, and screenshots of Brad's earnings, have a look at this page:
http://www.ez-search-engine-optimization.com/stomping
The course may be expensive, especially for those with limited funds, but it certainly seems to work.
If anyone has bought and used this course, I would love to hear what you think about it.
3. Managing affiliate links with the .htaccess file
Many months ago, I ran a series in the newsletter about using server side includes (SSI) on your sites, and how they can help maintain a site. SSI is a really powerful tool used by many webmasters. That series was removed from the online archives of the newsletter since it was published in a report which is now available to Niche Blueprint owners.
One of the great things about SSI is that you can make sweeping changes to a site (e.g. adding/changing/removing a link on hundreds of pages) in a few seconds.
In this section of the newsletter, I want to look at another technique that can be equally useful - redirects and the .htaccess file.
WARNING & DISCLAIMER
If you make changes to your own .htaccess file, you do so at your own risk. You should always keep a backup of any file you change and if you are unsure what you are doing, contact technical services of your hosting provider.
In the root directory on your server, there should be a file called
.htaccess
If it is not there, you can probably just create it (but do ask your service provider first).
This file is a text file that can be edited in any text editor (just make sure you save it with the correct name ".htaccess".
The purpose of the .htaccess file is to supply your server with additional information whenever someone calls up a web page on your site.
We are going to look at just one function of this file. If you want to read more about this file, do a Google search.
Let's take an imaginary domain - http://mydomain.com - to use as an example.
What happens when you type in a URL for that domain that does not exist?
e.g. http://mydomain.com/page-does-not-exist.html
Well, depending on your server setup, you may be automatically redirected to a custom "page not found" page, or even redirected to your homepage.
Some hosts handle this for you. However, you can use the .htaccess file to specify where the user is redirected to when they type in a URL.
The "redirect" command is used to manually specify where a user should be sent if they type in a certain non-existent URL.
The way you can use this to your advantage, is to set up redirects for your affiliate programs. Here is an example using a Clickbank Hoplink:
Here is the affiliate link (no, it is not a real affiliate product):
http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/bluewidget
In my .htaccess file I add a line to the end of this file:
redirect /widget http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/bluewidget
Save it and upload to my server.
The syntax of this function is:
redirect from to
where "from" is the page you want people redirected from when it is called, and "to" is the URL you want them redirected to.
Now, on any page of mydomain.com, I can place a link to that affiliate program by linking to this URL:
http://mydomain.com/widget
This URL does not exist, so when someone clicks the link, my server searches through the .htaccess file to see if there is any redirect specified for that URL. My server sees that when someone calls this URL, they should be redirected to:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/bluewidget
That is what happens. My merchants page loads.
Now, imagine that on mydomain.com I want 50 pages to link to this affiliate URl (e.g. in a menu bar). I can simply use this URL as my link:
http://mydomain.com/widget
Now, two weeks later I get an email from the "blue widget guy" saying that he has changed his affiliate system, and I now need to use a different affiliate link:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/widget4U
I don't have to go and edit 50 pages of my site, I simply go to my .htaccess file and change the redirect to:
redirect /widget http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/widget4U
Save and Upload, and my site is automatically updated for all links pointing to this merchants site.
Centralizing affiliate links in this way, allows you to make sweeping changes to the links on your entire site, by just editing one file.
Imagine if Mr. Widget contacted you saying he was discontinuing his affiliate program, or dropping commissions from 50% to 10%. You find another affiliate program with better commission:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/bestwidgets
It is simply a matter of editing the .htaccess file from:
redirect /widget http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/widget4U
TO
redirect /widget http://hop.clickbank.net/?myid/bestwidgets
Save and upload.
Now the links on all 50 of your pages point to the new affiliate link.
Using the .htaccess file in this manner can also mask your affiliate link - great to make commission theft just that little bit harder.
4. Other News
The new Niche Blueprints will be ready towards the end of this month. Last month, the secret niche blueprint sold out within hours, but I still have about 20 copies of the PDA niche for anyone interested. You can find details at:
http://niche-blueprints.com
Click the link top right, then enter:
username: contact
password: vision
I am starting to hear some success stories of the February blueprint. I built a site myself with that one, and have started seeing my pages included in the main search engines. Even though it is only a few weeks old, I have been making some income via Adsense. I can't tell you details as that is against Google's terms, but it has already paid for itself (assuming I paid for my copy).
For anyone looking for a blueprint for a successful affiliate site, I highly recommend you consider getting one of the remaining Niche Blueprints from last month.
I have been receiving a few emails asking about my Content Publisher software. Firstly there is some confusion over what exactly it does. I don't want to go into too many details until it is released, but I just want to set the record straight - it is not a content generation system - I don't create spamming tools ;o)
Content Publisher, as its name suggests, helps you easily publish YOUR content (articles you write, or buy from ghost writers) on your web sites, and distribute your content to other webmasters. As for a release date, I can't promise one. I took on some new beta testers and am working on getting their suggestions incorporated into it before release. You will hear about it first here, as well as be offered a good discount, so stay tuned for information.
Well, that's it for another issue. If you want to read the recent issues of this newsletter, you can read them online at:
http://ez-search-engine-optimization.com/blog/index.php
For older newsletters, you will need to visit the old archives at:
http://ez-search-engine-optimization.com/archives
Have a great week!
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