Google is constantly improving the quality of its Search Engine Results Page (SERP), pushing algorithm updates (more recently Penguin and Possum) that keep both SEO and PPC experts on their toes. The prime focus of Google right now is to deliver the most relevant, valuable content to search users who need it the most.

Why You Need to Combine SEO and PPC

Because of the ever-more-sophisticated search algorithms used by Google, it is no longer feasible for a company to employ SEO and PPC experts who reside in separate silos. In order to maximize efficiency of both their organic and paid search campaigns, companies need to bring their SEO and PPC teams together. Not only will this almost-always lead to an increase in conversions, but it will provide you with more useful insights into the way search users interact with your content as a whole. 

To dig down deeper, I reached out to some industry experts. Here is what Hari at Hari Menon Digital had to say:

Google is on a quest to better align its search listings with consumer objectives by delivering the most relevant and valuable content. While this is obviously good news for search consumers, it means that SEO strategists have to constantly come up with new ways and techniques to make sure that their listings are in prime spots.

Because of this, it is absolutely necessary to combine your SEO and PPC efforts to maximize traffic and conversion opportunities. If done the right way, you will notice a meaningful increase in both your organic traffic and paid ad clicks.

So, how do you accomplish this successfully?

Share Keyword Data Between SEO and PPC Teams

Keywords are at the very core of any successful SEO or PPC campaign. Without the right keywords, you have little hope of getting much attention from search users.

For PPC, keywords are generally chosen which are known to generate the maximum amount of CTR from the most relevant consumers.

For SEO, keywords are generally chosen which convey the most accurate information about the business but also align with search user objectives.

Both PPC and SEO teams conduct keyword research that aligns with their target audience’s objectives.

In order to maximize efficiency and to convey a unified company image, SEO and PPC teams should absolutely share keyword data which allows them to keep on top of what the company wants to be for the customers. Of course this is more efficient, but it also helps project an image of trustworthiness which can lead to an increase in conversions.

Think About the Bigger Picture

Make an effort to run PPC campaigns that are aligned with your organic search listings. If a user searches for your products or services and finds that your organic search listings are displayed right next to your ad listings, it conveys an image of authority and dominance.

It means that as a company you’re investing to keep on top of your competitors.

Remember, it’s very common for competitors to run PPC ads that target your keywords, and in doing so their ad might display right next to your organic search listing.

Share PPC and SEO Reports / Data

Results from an SEO campaign can take a while to show up, and as such it can be hard to drive meaningful decisions based on organic search data alone. On the other hand, your PPC campaign will start showing results in a much shorter period of time, if not immediately.

Thus, from the data gathered from your PPC campaigns, you can start to make future adjustments to your SEO strategy much more confidently, as you have data that comes directly as a result of real-world decisions and consumer interactions.

Ultimately, the objective of combining SEO and PPC is not to have the same people performing the same tasks. Rather, it is to increase awareness, maximize efficiency and to drive more conversions by sharing critical data.

The post How to Combine SEO and PPC for Powerful Results appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Keyword research is integral to every aspect of your internet marketing efforts. This can’t be emphasized enough.

Even if your campaign has already generated a respectable amount of conversions, you simply cannot rest on your laurels. You need to sustain that growth. Without solid keyword strategies in place, there’s always the risk of your business going kaput.

If you want your online business to thrive, you have to use every available resource and tool that can give your brand a leg up in the competition.

Towards that end, you have to use SEO or Search Engine Optimization to your advantage. This means being on the constant lookout for well-targeted keywords that match the search intent of your audience.

Here are the 4 excellent keyword strategies that will optimize your conversion rates.

1. Focus on Long-tail Keywords

If you want to boost your site’s conversion rate, you’ll do well to pay more attention to long-tail keywords in your SEO campaign.

Nearly everyone who does keyword research knows this already, but it’s worth emphasizing on account of how search engines are becoming more personalized every year.

So the same rule applies. If you want your site to rank high, you have to expand your “seed keywords” into long-tail variations.

Obviously, long-tail keywords are less likely to be used as search terms in search engines. On the flip side, longer and more specific phrases will face lesser competition, which will drive more conversions in your SEO campaign.

Figuring out which variations of keyword phrases are likely to ramp up your conversions is where the real challenge begins.

Fortunately, there are numerous online tools that can help you generate hundreds of long-tail keyword variations using a seed keyword. One such tool is Ubersuggest.

Using Ubersuggest is so easy even a child can do it. Just go to the website and enter your seed keyword into the empty field.

After you click “Look Up,”  you’ll be instantly taken to a comprehensive results page showing hundreds of long-tail keyword suggestions, along with their corresponding Search Volume, CPC, and level of competition (Competition).  It’s pretty straight-forward, as you can see below.

That amount of data helps you make better and informed decisions as to which keyword phrases are likely to increase your conversion rates.

Search Volume, for example, allows you to assess the popularity of certain keywords. CPC (cost per click), on the other hand, can determine the profitability of keywords in PPC campaigns.

Lastly, Competition lets you check each keyword phrase’s competitiveness on a scale of 0 – 1.0. For small businesses, choosing keyword suggestions with a competitiveness rating of up to 0.4 is most recommended.

Taken together, these metrics offer an extensive overview of the possible keyword strategies that will drive qualified visitors to your website.

2. Find Keywords With Commercial Intent

If you want to draw conversions in your marketing campaign, you have to take into account the intent behind visitors’ searches.

The goal here is to drive the right traffic, which you can do by attracting prospects who are likely to engage in a transaction, whether to buy a product, sign up for a service, or any other activity that may lead to an actual sale.

You can pull this off by using commercial intent keywords. As the term itself implies, these are keywords frequently used for transactional searches.

Let’s say you’re selling offering cleaning services. In this case, you can enter the words “cleaning services” in the search field.

As you can see in the screenshot above, “Commercial cleaning companies” has 1,900 searches every month with a competitiveness rating of 0.46.

Sounds promising, right? Not so fast.

For all you know, users using those keyword phrases in search queries might only be looking for employment opportunities. Maybe a big chunk of them are thinking of starting a cleaning service themselves.

By going this route, you may attract a lot of visitors to your site, but they will not necessarily lead to more conversions.

If you want to secure conversions, you need to include transactional keywords such as “buy,” “discounts,” or “for hire” — just to name a few.

Ubersuggest allows you to incorporate commercial intent keywords into your search by using the “Keyword Filter” feature on the lower left portion of the results page. See how it works below.

By entering transactional or buying terms into the field, you should be able to get keyword suggestions targeted for purchase intent.

Other buying terms you can use to target action-based keywords include:

• Buy
• Purchase
• Cheapest
• Where to buy
• Cheapest
• Low cost
• Etc.

3. Find Local Intent by Picking Local Keywords

If you’re running a local business, you need to take into account local intent in your keyword research.

In fact, according to a report by Brandsource, 75% of local searches result in a store visit while over 25% result in purchases.

The best way to draw local traffic to your site, of course, is to localize your keyword research.

Thankfully, Ubersuggest makes it easy to generate keyword suggestions that are relevant to local searchers. After entering the seed keyword in the search field, just specify the language and location from the drop-down menu on the right.

So if you’ve got a chimney sweeping business in Canada, for instance, you can enter “chimney sweeping” as your seed keyword and then specify “English/Canada” as your area of localization. After clicking “Look Up,” your screen will appear like this:

If you select the default setting (“English – United States”), your results will look something like this.

You’ll notice that the keyword suggestions generated in both instances are almost similar except for the results in the Search Volume, CPC, and Competition categories.

What these results prove is that keyword phrases that perform well in one locale may not be profitable in another, which only goes to show how essential it is to employ localized keyword research in your SEO strategy.

4. Be Mindful of Keyword Seasonality

Are you keeping track of seasonal trends that influence your website traffic? You should. After all, seasons can directly impact customers’ purchasing behavior.

To bring home the point, NRF reports that the Christmas holidays resulted in sales amounting to a whopping $655.8 billion last year.

As an SEO marketer, it is in your best interests to get a piece of that pie. And you can do exactly that by incorporating keyword seasonality into your overall keyword research strategy.

For example, let’s try the keyword phrase  “family Halloween costumes.”

From the screenshot above, you’ll notice that the keyword we entered has a competitiveness rating of 0.33 and an average search volume of 22,200. That’s a potential SEO goldmine right there.

Now by hovering your mouse over the graph to the left of the monthly search volume, you’ll notice that majority of the searches were made on August through October.

Clearly, there’s a huge spike of searches for “Halloween costume ideas for toddlers” during these months. And you’d do well to capitalize on this seasonal trend by employing those keywords, and the variations thereof,  in your SEO strategy.

Of course, Halloween is only one season among many. By incorporating keyword seasonality in your SEO strategy, you’ll be giving your business a significant boost in ROI for the entire year.

Conclusion

There are no two ways about it: keyword research is essential to any successful online marketing campaign. Without it, you can’t hope to sustain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

In employing the keyword research strategies mentioned above, it’s equally important that you never lose sight of the big picture — and that is to target interest and intent. In the final analysis, keyword research is the foundational strategy that forms the basis of your SEO campaign.

The post 4 Surefire Keyword Research Strategies that Will Get Higher Conversions appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Regardless of whether you’re a newbie or a veteran blogger, it’s important to create content consistently. But turning the black canvas, the white screen, the blinking cursor, and ideas into content that converts, engages, and attracts can be terrifying at times. Moreover, the process can prove to be time consuming and challenging.

All-in-all content marketing can be tough work. To combat this, I’ve compiled a list of some tried and tested techniques proven to assist any blogger get content ideas for their blog.

1. Reader Survey

Surveys are an excellent way to gather information from your loyal readers. This can be done by sending a survey asking them about what they think makes for an interesting read, or which one would not. To do this all you need is to create the survey using, say, Google Forms and thereafter sending it out via social media, a newsletter, or through your blog.

On the survey form, you may decide to have multiple choice questions covering a predefined set of topics, or you could also make open-ended questions that require your readers input. The number of responses obviously depends on the size of your readership.

Established bloggers may have an upper hand thanks to their huge readership base. But even if you’re just starting out as a blogger and are lucky enough to get a couple of responses, that would be enough to generate some content ideas for your next post.

2. Facebook Groups

Over the last couple of years, Facebook groups have experienced an exponential growth in popularity. Which becomes resourceful for bloggers looking to learn, connect and grow their blog.

Besides, Facebook groups are a rich source of information for bloggers looking to find fresh writing ideas. More and more people are turning to Facebook to get solutions to their problems in areas like pet care, graphic design, gardening etc.

Irrespective of which niche your blog belongs to, you’re sure to find the perfect Facebook group that you can join to find fresh blogging ideas.

Once you have found the Facebook group, just scour through the questions people are seeking answers for and jot them down for content ideas.

3. Google Keyword Planner

The power Google’s Keyword Planner has for bloggers looking for fresh content for their blogs cannot be understated. It is completely free for anyone and the only thing required before using it is signing up.

The tool works by doing detailed research on the keywords being searched for. Furthermore, it has important search parameters that you can tweak to your advantage to get the most relevant results.

The results from the search can generate dozens of amazing content ideas. In addition, the tool also gives an overview of the number of searches conducted per month from people searching the keywords on Google.

4. The Web

The web is a brainstorming technique almost every person has used before, especially in their schooling years when they needed to connect different topics together or come up with essay ideas. The concept is a no brainer. Search for a couple of ideas, then branch out further to related sub-ideas.

For example, you might begin by searching for topics like “content marketing” and then you could branch out to “calls-to-action,” “voice and tone,”, and “SEO.” Moreover, you could continue digging deeper to get even more ideas. From “calls-to-action” you might get topics like “mid-post conversion,” “free offer,” or “pop-up.”

5. Re-purpose Previous Content

Refreshing old content can be a good way to spare yourself the difficulty associated with coming up with new content from scratch. Several ways can be used to create new content from what was written before.

To begin with, look at the posts that have received the most social media shares, comments, and views by using Google Analytics.

If that post was something like “tips to make your home more energy efficient in 2017,” you could consider writing an updated version for 2018.

Secondly, you could also write a sequel. For example, if you wrote about off-site SEO, you could extend the coverage to on-site SEO. Again, you could add a new perspective if you wrote an article that was only targeting one audience.

6. Competition

No matter which niche your blog belongs to, one thing almost-always remains constant – competition. If you find yourself hitting dead ends in terms of ideas, you could take a look at what your competition is doing. Even before you begin blogging, it is always a good idea to keep a list of competitors in the back of your mind.

Check their social accounts and their blogs to see what they have been up to. You can begin by examining what kind of content has been popular and checking whether you’ve covered that topic before or not. If not, then that could be an idea for you to pick up and provide an in-depth coverage. Remember, the idea isn’t to copy paste, but rather to take inspiration to come up with content that has even more depth.

7. Newsletter

Having a newsletter for your blog is invaluable. It provides a channel through which you can keep in touch with your audience in real time. Besides, it provides a good opportunity to learn from them.

Setting up a newsletter is simple. Integrate the sign up form in your blog with a list-building software. Examples of tools available for marketers to build their email lists include MailChimp, AWeber, Rafflecopter, and OptinMonster.

Once you have your newsletter set up, you can include a question in your newsletter asking your audience what they would like to learn next or what area they are struggling with. While many people may not reply, those that do reply will provide you with an immense resource of ideas for your next blog topic.

8. Blog Comments

Blog comments can be a treasure trove of ideas for bloggers looking for fresh ideas. Even while some bloggers try as much as possible to cover a certain topic the best way they can, they may sometimes leave readers with more questions than before. So if you do find yourself bombarded with a good chunk of questions from a certain blog post, it could be a clear sign that you need to further elaborate on the topic.

Producing consistent, high-quality content is crucial if you’re looking to have a successful online presence. Using these strategies you should be able to come up with content ideas to keep your blog regularly updated. If you can think of other ideas I’ve missed or have any questions leave a comment below!

The post How to Come Up with Awesome Content Ideas for Your Blog appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

“My web host sucks” say majority of the bloggers who haven’t done any research before starting their blogs.

I’ve been with Siteground for a long time now and I am a proud client. Have never had any issues within the last couple of years, and even if there was a problem, their customer support was always there to help me out.

But being an affiliate marketer, I need to have multiple “reliable” hosts where I could host my different websites. Bluehost/Hostgator isn’t an option. In fact, I’d stay away from all EIG owned hosting companies. They suck and their customer support is even worst.

Don’t believe me? Check it here.

So you’re left with very few options. You don’t want to end up wasting your money on a poor hosting service with third-class customer support team. Beside money, you don’t even want to give up your peace of mind in exchange for pathetic service.

This is when I came across an insightful Hostinger review and decided to give it a try. Thought I should share my honest experience with you. But before I begin my Hostinger review, here is the summary of how to choose your web host:

Check Hostinger Shared Hosting Plans

Hostinger Customer Support

I even prioritize customer support over hosting quality because if the customer support team isn’t available for help, you’re lost.  Most bloggers are not well versed with tech stuff and they get frustrated when there is a problem with their website.

When contacting customer support of a majority of web hosts, it takes at-leat 15-20 minutes on average which upsets me. I recently connected with someone on Hostgator for a client’s website, and it took them 27 minutes to respond.

This is NOT the case with Hostinger. I contacted their customer support team thrice and was connected in less than  1 minute on average. At one time, it was as fast as 10 seconds. And once connected, their support team is very helpful.

I used to say good stuff about Siteground team and how their support team can even make you a cup of coffee if you connect with them.

But if there is any hosting support team I admire after Siteground, it’s Hostinger without any doubt.

Pricing

Their pricing is very competitive which gives them an edge over the competition. You can get started with as low as $2.15 /mo. if you’re just starting out. Once you grow, you can easily switch to bigger plans.

If you’re unsure about which hosting plan is right for your website, check out this Hostinger review by Satori Webmaster Academy.

The feeling of having a helpful customer support team is awesome. And Hostinger enables you to enjoy that feeling at a very low price as compared to competitors. So you shouldn’t be missing out on it if you are looking for an affordable host and peace of mind.

The post Hostinger Review – Affordable Web Hosting for WordPress appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

This was my first Prime day as an affiliate marketer and I am happy with the results. As promised, I am going to share everything I did to make $1000+ on Prime day 2017. You can apply the same tips for any other upcoming sales including Black Friday.

As always, I am not going to share any URLs in this article. If you believe you can’t learn without seeing the websites under discussion, you just can’t.

To avoid any confusions, I’d like to make few things clear for you.

There were a total of 3 websites and 2 Amazon accounts that were involved on Prime day. Website 1 brought in the major amount of sales and it was using Amazon account 1. The websites 2 and 3 were using Amazon account 2. Reasons these websites use different Amazon accounts is because the website 1 is co-owned by another partner as well, so I am using their account.

Website 1 (Amazon Account 1) – $16,253 in Sales

Websites 2,3 (Amazon Account 2) – $7,313 in Sales

There are two major things that I did and I am going to explain in detail.

1. Benefit from Existing Traffic

I had ~150 daily visitors on website 1, ~200 on website 2 and less than 100 on site 3. Your main goal on prime day should be to make maximum people click on your affiliate links. Once a user has clicked your link to Amazon, your job is done. Almost everyone has something in cart on prime day and the chances of people buying through your links are high. So make sure your goal is make maximum people click on your affiliate links.

But how?

So I came across a post in a FB group, The Cloud Living Community, where Rahul Yadav, a very active group member shared a previous year post from Will Blears. The post had some useful tips on how to maximize your earnings on Prime day. Of all tips, there was one that said to use a Hello Bar or some other sticky bar on your website directing your visitors to Amazon deals page.

I went ahead and designed a sticky bar but with some added creativity. I added a countdown timer in an attempt to leverage scarcity marketing. It turned out really well and I am going to explain how I did it.

Luckily, I had membership of Thrive Ultimatum. It’s a scarcity marketing plugin for WordPress that boosts your conversion rates. And you don’t really need to be a tech geek to implement this. It’s as easy as it gets. Simple drag n drop builder and you can setup a beautiful countdown timer within 5 minutes.

Here is what I did:

When Do I Start Displaying the Countdown Timer?

My timer didn’t start appearing on my website when prime day started. It was actually already there before prime day began; 10 hours before Prime day to be exact.

Why?

I just didn’t want to lose the traffic day before Prime day. So any clicks in those 10 hours might still help me grab commissions on Prime day sales in the first 14 hours. (24 hours cookie). I basically had a separate countdown timer for pre-prime day hype that said something like this:

Key Takeaways

2. Drive More Traffic

There was no SEO involved in driving the extra traffic on Prime day. 100% traffic was social acquired through different platforms that I am going to explain below.

But let’s take a look at Prime day traffic:

See that sharp curve? My regular daily traffic is 150-200 visitors on average whereas the website received around 5000 sessions on Prime day. More than 70% of traffic came through social platforms. Take a look.

And here is a real-time traffic snapshot I was able to capture:

What Pages Did I Create?

I had no idea about how prime day deals work. At first, I simply created a page with best deals that I thought I’d update when Prime day starts.

But when it started, I realized most deals are lightning deals i.e. they last for 3-4 hours only. So I changed my strategy and tried to find deals that were going to last till end of Prime day or atleast 12 hours.

I went ahead and created a new deals with page. That was it about creating content. Next is leveraging social platforms to drive traffic to these pages.

Promoting on Social Platforms

Facebook

One of the products I was promoting has a dedicated group on Facebook with more than 400k members. And luckily, they do allow posts with affiliate links. This was a major win and traffic from this group was totally surprising. I shared my post in some other groups as well which also helped.

Reddit

Reddit is the 9th most visited website in the United States (Source). I already knew a lot of bloggers leveraging this platform to drive traffic but never gave it a try. So on Prime day, I dropped my link in a couple of sub-reddits and results were amazing. 729 sessions through reddit. There are a lot of sub-reddits related to prime day deals as well where you can post your links.

Stumbleupon

102 sessions came through Stumbleupon. All I did was submitted my link on Stumbleupon. Your page is initially displayed to 3-4 visitors and the more thumbs up it receives, the bigger audience it reaches. So you need to create a deals page that people find interesting.

Key Takeaways

Just like Prime day, you can use same tips to benefit from some of the biggest sales of the year including Black Friday and Christmas sales. Let me know if you’ve any questions.

The post How I made $1000 in Commissions on Amazon Prime Day 2017 appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Hello Everyone!

I haven’t posted anything in a long time as I’ve been busy with my affiliate websites. This post details exactly what I did to build and grow my first affiliate website to $1000/month. Expect no fluff in this post as I really don’t have time for that. Everything will be straight-forward and to the point. If you’ve any questions, feel free to drop your comments.

A Brief Overview

Let’s start with data first.

May 2017 Earnings

This was my first ever affiliate website that I started back in September 2016. Yes, call me a newbie. The website made it’s first 70 cents in October and then next 5 bucks in November. Here is the earnings data to date:

Here are some of the key stages explained in detail:

1. Keyword Research

I didn’t waste a lot of time in keyword research. In fact, I accidentally hit this niche and found it through someone’s Facebook timeline. Before that time, I had no idea about how keyword research works. You won’t believe but I actually setup my website right after I came across the niche. All I looked at was search volume (5k+ Average Monthly Searches) and product price ($90-$200).

I had no idea how to do a competitor analysis and what it takes to rank a website. But once my first round up post was live, that was when I learned I should do keyword research. I used KWFinder and Ahrefs keywords explorer to analyze keyword difficulty and then discover more related keywords in that niche. Ahrefs is better at checking keyword difficulty, but it’s expensive for beginners. So I find KWFinder economical and useful at the same time.

Please note that if you’re solely relying on metrics from these tools to make your decisions, you are mistaken. I mostly use KWFinder for finding more keywords in a niche. I do look at the keyword difficulty values, but that’s where my research begins. Manually evaluate search results. Analyze your competitors, their on-page, off-page and everything they’ve done to rank. Only then you’ll be able to decide if you should be aiming for this keyword or not.

If ^^that’s your excuse for not starting a niche website, join the NicheHacks Facebook Group. This group is owned by Stuart Walker from NicheHacks who is a famous internet marketer. You will find 100’s of niche website ideas if you read his blog and follow FB group closely. I’ve started 2 new websites recently and NicheHacks FB group is where I discovered those niches.

Tools used

Key Takeaways

2. Domain and Hosting

I went with a partial match domain. Back then, I had no idea about EMDs (exact-match domains), PMDs (partial-match domains) and branded domains. I just thought it was a good name and I went with it, without thinking of any SEO aspects. But now, I prefer going with branded domains.

I see a lot of people wasting too much time on this step. Please don’t. Come up with any name and move on to the real thing. I got a domain for $12 and hosting for $9 at Namecheap. A really good hosting package for getting started. You can host up-to 3 websites which is great. Though I have started hosting my new websites on Siteground now. Expensive, but better in a longer run.

But if you are a beginner, don’t bother investing too much on hosting if you have limited funds. Save that money and spend on more important stuff like content and links.

Services used

Key Takeaways

3. Content

If someone told you content is king, that’s true 100%. Good content is extremely vital to the success of your website. A well-written piece connects with readers and definitely converts well. You can outsource your content or write it yourself if you don’t have enough funds.

I didn’t have enough funds but I took a different approach. I partnered with a content writer and offered her a percentage in the ownership. There are endless possibilities when you want to get things done. All that’s needed is your desire to take action.

I told my writer to write more content than what our competitors on page 1 had. So we went with 3k+ words approx. This was published on the homepage. There was nothing else published for the next month.

Then I published another round-up in November. And the website has total 5 money posts (2500+ words) and 4 informative articles (500+ words) as we speak.

Don’t under-estimate the important of OnPage SEO. I didn’t know much about it until I came across few of the best internet marketers; Matt Diggity from Diggity Marketing and Charles Floate. Trust me, I was so sick of information overload and trying random bullshit from the internet until I found them. Both these guys really know their stuff and all their advice is based on real data and rigorous testing. I haven’t directly interacted with any of them but they all make a huge contribution towards the success of my affiliate website(s). Go read their on-page SEO guides and make sure you implement it right.

Key Takeaways

4. Off-site SEO

Being a beginner, I wasn’t aware of maintaining anchor text ratios, link velocity and all that technical stuff. I read somewhere to reverse-engineer the competition and replicate. I did the same. So one of the main competitor was having around 300 links. 90% of the links were blog comments with exact-match anchor text. I replicated. (I’ll never do that again, even though it worked well back then).

I spent some time in acquiring scholarship links as well. Like I sent out 25-30 emails and was able to secure 4 good edu links. I found it daunting later on and stopped. Now that everyone seems to be doing this, I don’t see any value though some people might disagree.

Next, I did some guest posts on a couple of websites like all those famous self-publishing platforms including HuffPost, RebelMouse, Medium, etc. And again, I was blatant with anchors. The website was stuck at page 5. Later in November, someone told me about Hatred, a vendor on Konker. That was the game-changer actually. I got 10 links from him. He didn’t only deliver excellent links but also suggested anchor text changes for my order. (I was going exact-match again :P). After Hatred’s links and kind advice, I did some more guest posts with long tail anchors and tried to diversify my anchor profile.

Now if you ask me about final anchor-text distribution, here is how it looks like:

My site was probably sandboxed until February and it picked up after that. I didn’t maintain a good link velocity and went hard on exact-match anchors. This is something I avoid now and you should too.

Services used

Key Takeaways

Summing it up

This website was crazy beginning to a fruitful journey. I have started more than 5 websites after this and almost all are a success. There are a couple that have crazy success stories. One of them was actually setup on a $5 expired domain and it made a whopping $1000 within a month. If I find time any sooner, I will write a blog sharing more details about that website.

I have tried my best to write down all that popped up in my mind. Still, I am sure there’s details I might have missed. If you’ve any questions, feel free to ask and I’d love to answer.

The post First Amazon Affiliate Website: $0 to $1000/Month appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

You will never reach your big yearly goals (you know, the ones you set back in January for the new year) if you never set milestones along the way. It’s typical to set goals at the start of the year, become motivated for the first month and then push them aside thinking you have plenty of time to achieve them. Before you know it, it’s the end of the year and nothing has been accomplished. I’ve done this thousands of times and finally became fed up with the vicious cycle.

It was time for me to move forward and achieve my goals for once. Through the goal setting process, I’ve discovered a simple system that can work for anyone, even the most unorganized/unplanned person around! Read on for a complete guide on mastering weekly reflections and how it can drastically change the way you view goals.

Set the Goals

Determine what you want to accomplish, being as specific as possible with a set deadline. Be realistic about your goals but dare to push yourself and step out of your comfort zone.

Once you have the goal in place, brainstorm all the tasks you must complete in order to make that goal happen within the deadline you set for yourself. For example, if you want to start your own clothing shop, you will have to do your research (how to get started with your own business, different brands and styles of clothing and how to save money to invest in a business) and all of these need to be set as separate tasks.

Now that you have the big goal broken down into smaller tasks, it’s time to set smaller weekly goals.

Get Focused

When reflecting and goal setting, it’s important to be completely focused and consistent each and every week. Set a time and day to reflect when nothing and no one will interrupt you. Get in your happy place (mine is curled up on the couch with my puppy and a cup of coffee at 5am on a Saturday morning) and ask yourself the following questions:

What did I do well this past week?

Always start on a positive note and list all of the things you did really well in the past week. Compare your goals from that week with what you actually did and jot down 3-5 things that you can confidentially say you did well.

What do I need to work on?

Try not to word this question as “what didn’t I do well?”. It brings on a negative vibe to your reflection that’s unnecessary. Instead, accept the areas you are lacking and focus on them as you move forward. Think of a few areas (2-5) that you can improve on in the upcoming week.

What are my weekly goals?

Looking at the things you need to improve on or do more of and your task list that aligns to your big goal, set a few weekly goals for yourself. I usually write down between 3 and 5 goals, depending on the size of the goal and how involved it is.

How will I take action on my weekly goals?

Without taking action, your weekly goals will never be accomplished. This means that those New Year goals probably won’t happen either. The key ingredient here is ACTION. You must put in the work to achieve the goal. Ask yourself, what action steps can I take this week to complete my weekly goals and tasks? Put this action plan into your calendar and schedule time for it.

Follow through

Write your goals on a calendar, put it in your phone, tell a friend or anything else you need to do to help you stick to your word. You need this accountability to stay on task and achieve incredible things in your life. I chat with my success partner every week to talk about the bulleted questions above. She keeps me on top of things and pushes me harder than if I were goal setting alone.

If you’ve set some goals in the past that you never ended up following through with, end that trend right here right now. Get focused, grab a notebook, and prepare for success this time around. Each week evaluate yourself by asking what you did well, what you need to work on, goals for the following week, and an action plan to make them happen. It’s a super simple system that actually works!

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People across the globe are using Instagram. It has made it very easy for people to take pictures and share them with their friends and family. Many people enjoy sharing their pictures with the world. That said, apart from networking, you can use this social network to market products and services very effectively and efficiently.

Over the past couple of years, Instagram has proved to be a great promotional tool, let’s take a look at a couple of tips how you can use it to the benefit of your business.

1. Tell a Story

As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, pictures are the soul of this platform. If you are using the platform for marketing purposes, it is essential to understand that posting random pictures doesn’t work. The pictures don’t need to be very professional but the key is to have the pictures highlight the important aspects of your products.

You can also use videos for promotional purposes on Instagram. You can create and share videos of your business. For some, videos are more appealing than pictures and texts.

Use the medium to tell a story and get your targeted customers hooked. Tell them your brand story and upon what values is your business based on. It helps them connect with you and in return enhance your sales.

2. Focus on Quality, rather Quantity

To improve your visibility on Instagram, you must make sure that you post unique media on your feed. When necessary, employ professionals for industry tested advice and/or assistance. However, that doesn’t say you can’t use a good camera to take pictures yourself.

Carefully and effectively use this tool for your marketing campaigns to build your brand on Instagram.

3. Use Hashtags

Not only on Twitter, hashtags are very much relevant on Instagram. You need them to interact effectively with your clients. With their help, you can make your content easily searchable.

Well-crafted hashtags can create a viral effect, which could be very beneficial for your business. You can also make use of trending hashtags related to your product in order to magnify the effects.

Also, you could craft branded hashtags for a unique customized experience. Using branded hashtags for your promotional campaigns will help you spread your campaigns far and wide. After the campaign you can leave your customers with a unique hashtag to share with their circles.

4. Be Friendly

While executing your social media marketing campaigns, you must understand that Instagram has garnered a community of people with varying ideas, backgrounds and emotions. Make sure that you are friendly with everyone and appreciate the time they spend on your feed trying to connect with you. Always make sure to be friendly with your customers for the sake of your brand.

5. Be Active and Consistent

Activity draws users to feeds on Instagram. Post at least once a day to keep the feed updated. It will ensure that your customers will stay updated with the latest happenings. Try to switch things up and experiment posting updates at varying times every day, you will learn the best time to get better customer engagement.

Being consistent is very crucial to any Instagram marketing campaign. By being consistent and developing a theme for your Instagram feed, it will help you enhance customer experience. You can train your customers as to what to expect from your feed.

6. Link your Social Accounts with Instagram

Connect Instagram with other social networks to enhance your marketing power by manifold. For instance, with an Instagram tab on your Facebook, you can share your deliver your Instagram posts to your Facebook followers and increase your reach a lot.

7. Connect with your Audience

Staying in touch with your customers is vital if your business is targeting a small market. You can start by showing your customers that you value their feedback by incorporating it into the future iterations of your products and services.

Start a discussion, reply to their comments and engage them to know what they like and what they don’t. This will improve their interest in your brand and significantly help you branch out and develop more innovative products and services. If effectively engaged, your followers on Instagram can significantly influence the success of your organization, it would be a mistake to underestimate them.

While Instagram can still be used for socializing with your friends and loved ones, it is a really good tool for your marketing campaigns. Using Instagram properly can enhance your brand’s visibility and ultimately increase sales driving revenues. Incorporate the tips into your Instagram marketing campaign to achieve success.

The post 7 Tips for Using Instagram to Grow Your Business appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

Social Networks, if used correctly can prove to be a significant extension of your marketing campaigns. With the help of social networks, you get access to a plethora of tools, unlike the traditional marketing methods. On social networks, you get direct access to your users and customers, allowing you to engage them on a more personal level. Simply put, Social media marketing is a much better way to building a loyal customer base than your traditional marketing campaigns.

Let’s take a look at few important reasons why you should invest in social media marketing for your business.

1. Easy Access to Huge Audience

Social media marketing is growing in popularity with each passing day, for traffic is crucial to the success of every website. As we already discussed, social networks have provided companies with access to all the users they require to achieve their business goals.

With social networks on their side, businesses can talk with their customers and drive them to visit their site. Talking to them with help instill a certain trust in your customers, pushing them to your products and services without being too assertive. When satisfied with your products, these customers will prove to be a great asset for you and your business in the long haul.

2. A Lot of New Opportunities

True to its purpose, social media marketing allows you to spread your message and enhance brand awareness like a viral epidemic. Social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, allow you to host pages for your business and post on behalf of your organization to promote your business.

In fact, these days no social media marketing strategy is considered complete without a plan to target these sites. These sites have gained such an immense exposure. Advertisers don’t mind paying few hundred dollars for a shout out on an Instagram account with decent engagement and following. A solid instagram marketing strategy is enough to get you a hefty monthly paycheck.

3. Useful Customer Insights

Social media is such a spectacle that the researchers of the olden days only theorized about. While it used to take a tedious amount of effort to just get an idea as to what is hot and what is not, today you can do just that with a couple of clicks.

Researchers can gain an insight into the behavioral patterns and even how are they feeling with much ease, all while engaging their customers.

4. Incorporating the Feedback

With the help of social media, customers have been provided with a platform for instantaneous feedback. Actively monitoring the social sphere and incorporating the feedback into your products and services can help you achieve your business goals with so much ease. You can continually take a look at what’s working for your customers and what’s not, which will allow you to stay ahead of your competition.

Every good social media agency acknowledges this and incorporates constant monitoring into all their plans.

5. Easy Influence

With the technological advancements, there are softwares available today which allow you to know when people are talking about your brand anywhere on the social sphere. With the help of social media marketing, you can control bad press with just clarifications and steer the whole conversation in a direction beneficial to your business.

Using conventional marketing methods, it was really hard to even know the general market trends. It used to cost a lot of money and efforts from multiple organizations at a time. Social media marketing allows organizations to tap into the trends with ease and influence the markets as required.

6. Drive your Customers

With the advent of social media, we got Big Data, data that tells organizations all about every customer along with their needs and wants. Unlike traditional channels, social media marketing allows you to directly address each of your customers’ needs, all while improving your products in the meantime.

7. Cost Effective

Last but not the least, Social media marketing doesn’t require your organization to spill out all their fortune, in order to promote new products and services. The tools and techniques required in social media marketing cost little to no money. With good enough skills, social media marketing can bring you value and quality to your organization at very low costs, and the experience will be something beneficial for your business.

With these benefits just taking a look around the tip of the ice berg, social media marketing can yield a lot of good results for you and your business. If you haven’t already made use of this immensely amazing tool to your benefit, you should do it right away. Otherwise, your competition will defeat you and you’ll be left wondering what went wrong.

The post 7 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Your Business appeared first on AQIBNAZIR.COM.

With the mobile app market evolving substantially over the past couple of years, developers are keen on making money from this opportunity.

Everyone knows that it takes a lot of time and money to make an app. The big question here is how the developers can make a return on their investment. How can they profit from their app dev endeavors? You can make money from your apps using a variety of ways.

As a developer yourself, you need to understand all the options for making money off of your apps. We’ll take a look at some ways you can exploit your skills, put yourself in the right place and start making money from the lucrative mobile app development market.

1. Make it Premium

The first and most obvious way, you can make your apps available for a certain price.

In order to be able to publish your apps, you need to register with the app stores. The Apple app store costs you about $99 per year and the Android Play Store costs you a single fee of $25 upon signing up.

It actually works out better than putting up ads in your apps. You don’t have to sit there and wait for people to click on ads, you get the money as soon as the user installs the app.

2. Advertise

Every mobile app user, even the devs, have a love hate relationship with advertisements. They look up to them for earning money, but no one enjoys them when they pop up out of nowhere. The bottom line is that they are a good source of income but require a great deal of traffic to make enough. When you start getting enough users, it can turn into an amazing source of revenue.

You can expect ads to make you $2 with a 100 downloads. That’s just an estimated number and it can vary to a great degree based on how many clicks your ad gets. You may think that these are disappointing figures but they are actually not that bad. With decent effort, you can make $120 per day. It mainly depends on the types of ads that are served up.

3. Go Freemium

Pretty much the trend these days, going freemium means you release your app for free with all the basic features. Then you get your users to pay in order to unlock the more advanced features of your application.

For instance, you can release a video-call app which allows the users to make a two way call in the free version of the app. You can have your users pay to unlock three-way calls.

4. In-app Purchases

Unlike the freemium model, you can let your users unlock features in your free app with in-app purchases (IAPs).

You can set them to be a onetime purchase, which could help unlock the complete version of the app, or you could have them recur if they’d just like to add one more feature. For instance, you can offer more costumes and power ups with a game through IAPs, or they could get all the items with just a onetime purchase.

5. Get a Sponsor

Getting a sponsor for your free app is a great way to make money. Going with this option, you don’t have to wait for the money until the very end, you get the money upfront.

What you need to do is approach a company and tell that that you have an idea for an app and I will label it with your brand for some amount, or you could go like, I built this app a couple of months ago and it has this many downloads, I’ll put your brand on it for $XX. It could take a while for you to get to the right company.

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