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Affiliate Marketing - One of the most important parts of a good affiliate marketing website is original and valuable written content. I do not want to rehash the same old argument about the importance of content, I will stick with my stand that good content is:
- Good for your visitors
- Good for ranking in serps (search engine rank pages)
- Good as a keyword density tool
- Good for Internal linking and on-site SEO
Good to distinguish your sites from:
- The same links and content that the merchants you are affiliating for have on their sites.
- Other similar affiliate websites, like BANS, where many other webmasters are using them.
It is very true that thin affiliate marketing websites do not do well in search engines. Here is a quote from Google Webmaster Help Center
“Our Webmaster Guidelines advise you to create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs. Typically, affiliate websites feature product descriptions that appear on sites across that affiliate network. As a result, sites featuring mainly content from affiliate networks can suffer in Google’s search rankings, because they do not have unique content that differentiates them from other sites on the web. Unique, relevant content provides value to users and distinguishes your site from other affiliates, making it more likely to rank well in Google search result pages.”
Content along with a good link building strategy is the formula to get your sites to rank high in the SERPS.
But, content can be one of the most daunting tasks for affiliate marketers, especially if you have a store type site, it is hard to find ideas for written content, sometimes you really have to think outside the box. So here are some ideas for website content:
Website Content Ideas:
1. Lists
People love lists and they are easy to create. IE: Best, Worst, Most Bought, Most Popular, Most Read, Least Liked, 10 ways to…, 5 Methods for…, 8 Types of, etc… the possibilities here are endless.
2. Guides and Tutorials
Every type of product can be fitted to some kind of guide or tutorial and more than one. Even if you are selling clothes you can have a page on size charts, types of clothing for different shapes, hottest fashion trends, buying guide, etc…
3. How-To
How-to’s are great. Just use your imagination, a how-to can be created for just about anything.
4. Side Subjects
You can write about sub-subjects within your main one. For instance if you are selling CD’s you can have pages about music artists, music industry. If selling furniture you can talk about home decorating, if selling cooking ware you can provide recipes etc.. the possibilities are endless.
5. Product Reviews
If you don’t know the product do some research and compile something good.
6. Current Trends
Current Trends/Events related to the niche.
7. Trivia
Trivia is a popular subject and easy to create.
8. Interesting Facts
Interesting Facts and/or Myths - related to the niche/subject.
9. Histories
Histories - on the products or subject of your site.
10. Returning Visitor
What Returning Visitor’s Have To Say - make it up if you have to.
11. About Pages
About Pages - add a page detailing what your site is about.
12. Biographies
Biographies - good one if relevant to your niche.
13. Advantages of Buying Online
This one is universal and applies to any niche and or product. Customize it to your subject, write about the savings of online shopping vs. retail, good opportunity for keywords.
14. PLR
PLR stands for Private Label Rights. These are articles you buy and use as you wish, including publish it verbatim as your own.
Do not just copy and paste PLR stuff into your website, much better to tweak and rewrite them a little to make them more unique and original because you never know how many other people have bought the same article. This sure is easier than writing from scratch.
There are article spinner softwares out there that claim to auto spin articles and create unique rewrites with synonyms and the like. I actually spent 4 hours yesterday and tried about 20 of them, every single one was a piece of crap, that generated garbage in the spin.
If anyone knows of a good one feel free to share with us. I will continue my research and post when I find a good one.
Good PLR Sites:
- All Private Label Content - Good one. Very Cheap and lots of subjects.
- PLR Mini Mart - Very Cheap article packs on tons of topics.
- thePLRarticles.com - Not too much of a selection but cheap.
- Constant Content - Varies from cheap to REALLY expensive.
- PLR Article Shop - Pretty Cheap!
15. Feeds
A great way to add regularly updated content to your website. These services provide free news widgets and content feeds that will create the most current news on your sites related to your subject/niche.
Free feed services:
- Feedzilla - Endless topics and subjects
- RSS Feed Reader
- Spring Widgets - Creates cool widgets for news feeds and allows you to create a news widget from any feed or blog URL you enter, even this one ;-)
- Sphere
16. Content Generating Software
Frank at OP Tempo has created Blog Content Wizard, a software that creates content automatically based on keywords you enter and not just for blogs. I have not tried it but it looks promising.
Ways to Find Ideas for Website Content
1. Research keywords to find content ideas. When you enter the main product/niche keyword of your sites, phrases like how-to whatever, best whatever… will come up for what people are searching for within that niche.
Also, remember to research the best keywords for those content pages as you want them to rank for popular keywords and this way you will be all over the SERPS and get lots more targeted traffic. Learn more at 6 Step Checklist for On-Site SEO.
2. Visit your competitors sites to get inspirations for content and especially the top gun sites (do not copy).
3. Look at what popular bloggers in your niche are talking about.
4. Visit article sites to get ideas from existing articles. Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, Article Factory, Article City and Buzzle are some good ones. (Do not copy articles, this is a big nono)
What content tips and ideas can you guys offer? Where do you find inspirations for content? How do you fill pages on your affiliate sites?