.: Matt DeAngelis Profile and Articles
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1). Google's Latest AcquisitionFans of Google (including me), enjoy trying to figure out what Google is up to. In that spirit, I’m sharing some news.
Google has purchased a company called Upstartle, which makes web-based word processing software called Writely. Both Google and Writely had little to say in their blogs, other than the deal was done and Google is delighted to have the team on board.
2). People Getting Rich Online - Finding Your Niche
In honor of the birthday of one of the most famous Internet millionaires, Mook-Jon, I’m going to try to cover something that he says is one of the keys to his success — researching a niche for your website. BTW, Mook-Jon now writes for WebsitePublisher.net. He has written a birthday blog entry ruminating on success, drive and his life. Happy Birthday, Jon.
3). What Is Affiliate Marketing And Can I Get Rich Using It?
Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is the Internet version of commission sales. You make a deal with a company where they agree to pay you some amount of money to display some type of ad to visitors at your site to get them to go to the company’s site and do something.
That something may be as simple as clicking on the ad itself (Pay Per Click), identifying themselves to the advertiser for further action (Pay Per Lead), or getting the visitor to buy something, either on the spot or within an agreed upon timeframe (Pay Per Sale).
4). How I Made A Million Online In Three Months
There’s a headline that gets anyone’s attention.
There is actually a post on webmasterworld.net from a forum user who calls himself markus007 that makes that claim. I think the few initial suggestions he makes bear repeating:
1. Get a database of IP’s so you know where your traffic is coming from. Then create channels for each country. Its not uncommon to see US traffic with a CPM of $5.
5). Seven Offline Viral Marketing Ideas
Recently I participated in a forum discussion about offline marketing – that is using more traditional marketing offline to drive traffic to your website or blog. I can still remember the first time I saw a URL in a TV commercial and how cool I thought that was.
The offline world has the constraint of geography, so the least expensive forms of viral marketing are going to be geographically bound, which can be challenging for some sites.
6). Does Pay-Per-Click have a future?
Reading the Google hit piece that appeared in Barron's this week got me thinking about the whole pay-per-click model. Pay-per-click (PPC) has been around for more a decade, and while Google has made some positive changes to it, it's showing its age.
If you think of the Internet advertising process as a series of actions, it would go like this:
Impression -> Click -> Action
Back in the old days the metric was CPM (cost per thousand), and advertisers paid per impression (getting the ad on the screen).
7). Ten Simple Things That Helped Make Me Millions
I’ve had my own business since I was 9 years old. I’ve started, bought, sold and helped out in many different kinds of businesses over the thirty some odd years since then.
I’ve done everything I’ve always wanted to do, and I’ve had a lot of fun. Some of the highlights: I worked on Wall Street, I helped take a company public and I threw one of the biggest VC names in the country out of my office.
8). Chitika - What Went Wrong?
All I have to say is WOW. I haven’t seen this kind of vitriol since the last Democratic Convention, and all directed toward Chitika, a startup ad company that was supposed to be the Google killer. Their crime? Cutting people’s revenue checks after they’ve earned the money. Not a great PR move. And it looks like there are more problems with what, on the surface, looks like a great idea.
9). Tips For Getting Those First 100 Monthly Blog Visitors
I monitor a lot of blogs, forums and news sites with my trusty RSS reader. One of my favorite sites is SitePoint, which is a terrific discussion forum for webmasters, programmers and domain name investors.
I’ve had some great conversations on the forums and via IM that have been very enlightening.
In a recent post, one of the SitePoint forum guys was lamenting the fact that he was having trouble getting to 100 unique visitors per day.
10). Where To Find Good Independent Affiliate Programs
It seems that there are thousands of companies that have chosen to manage their own affiliate programs rather than using companies like Linkshare or Commission Junction.
In fact, our friends at Five Star Affiliate Programs tracked a posting on a UK affiliate forum where they are wondering if the networks deserve their 30% commission. Great Question.
11). My Best Free Traffic Builder
My Best Free Traffic Builder
12). Ten Independent Affiliate Programs You Should Consider
Not all of the good affiliate programs go through the big boys. As you can imagine, there are advantages and disadvantages to using someone like Linkshare or Commission Junction to run your program. The major disadvantages seem to be cost (expect to drop ten grand for setup and network access fees, and a 30% commission on what you make from the program) and the fact that your program will be lost among thousands of others.
13). Four Questions to Ask Before you Look for Affiliate Programs
I’ve been receiving emails from people asking for my advice on which affiliate programs are the best, who pays the most and most often, and many other basic questions. I’d like to answer those questions on this forum, but I can only type so fast.
I went out this weekend looking for content that I could publish here temporarily while I got down to writing.
14). Your Site Logs Can Help You Make A Ton Of Money
I’m a busy guy. I own several traditional brick and mortar businesses, and I spend a lot of time online. Since last month I’ve been spending a lot of time working on this blog and re-orienting myself on the Net.
So every morning I let my four dogs out, grab a cup of coffee and toast a bagel, then run upstairs and get on my computer. Some days I need to be out of the house at 9:00 AM to get somewhere, and some days I have nothing but time.
15). Six Linkbaiting Ideas To Get More Traffic To Your Site
There’s been a lot of talk about LinkBaiting in the blogosphere, and I’d like to weigh in.
First a little background: Google gives more ranking weight to what they call authoritative sites and pages. It defines those sites as having many outbound and inbound links. So now having links to your site is important to your success online. More simply, inbound links also drive traffic to your site.
16). 10 Quick Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Search Ranking
You know all that extra time you have to work on Search Engine Optimization? [A little sarcasm there] Actually, I tried to put together a list of quick things you can do that will help you move a little higher in your Google or Yahoo results.
1. Get listed in more search engines. There are tons of them out there. There are also many free services that will help you get listed.
17). Domain Name Insanity - Does Your Name Really Matter?
Your domain name is the .com, .net, .org or some other dot something that people use to get to your web site. affiliateblog.com is mine.
A group of investors headed by Jake Weinbaum (the guy behind Disney’s go.com) paid $7.5 million for the name Business.com back in 1999, aiming to make it a showcase B2B site. According to their own press they have succeeded.
18). People Getting Rich Online - Viral Marketing
As I mentioned in the last entry, I’ve been speaking with people who are making $5000 - $10,000 or more a month online, and I’m beginning to see some common factors.
You have to understand how difficult it is to get people to talk to you about their successes. They remind me of the inventors I’ve spoken to about financing their products — they are deathly afraid that someone will steal their ideas, not realizing that their talent is part of the success of that idea.
19). Making More Money With Affiliate Feeds
I love my RSS reader. I have a gazillion website, blog and news feeds set up in there, and I get the latest information from all of my favorite sites. That means I can be one of the first to share it with you. And RSS Reader 1.0 has a doorbell sound effect that rings when there are new feed entries to read. So wherever I am in the house I hear it and take a look.
20). People Getting Rich Online - Niche Research
How’s that list coming along? You wll recall in the first part of this series I covered getting a list together of ideas for your site or blog niche. Hopefully you have a good sized list of general categories. The next steps involve narrowing the keywords and then doing some supply and demand research.
There are many keyword tools out there. I like to use Overture’s because it’s free and easy.
21). Finding Affiliate Programs -- Where To Start
When most people have a task to do, they usually do well once they get started, and finding affiliate programs for your site or blog is no exception — you just need a little kickstart to get your brain into the right mode.
There’s a really easy way to get things started…go look at one of your competitors. There are tons of ways to do this — the easiest way would be to put your keyword(s) into Google and see what pops up.
22). Analyzing Commission Junction
Commission Junction is one of the 800 pound gorillas of Affiliate Marketing. CJ is part of the publicly held ValueClick, which earned $39 million last year on marketing programs, including affiliate programs, email marketing and software for advertising agencies.
CJ handles affiliate programs for a lot of the big names, including Home Depot, Yahoo and Citibank.
23). Four Questions Before You Look For Affiliate Programs
I’ve been receiving emails from people asking for my advice on which affiliate programs are the best, who pays the most and most often, and many other basic questions. I’d like to answer those questions on this forum, but I can only type so fast.
I went out this weekend looking for content that I could publish here temporarily while I got down to writing.
24). Further Proof That Blogs Rule The World
No one I’ve ever met is neutral on Wal*Mart. Let me begin by saying that Sam Walton is one of my heroes. He was a humble genius who as a multigazillionaire still rode to work every day in his pickup truck and frequently took his dog with him.
I don’t go to Wal*Mart. I like to buy American where I can and in Wal*Mart I can’t. I’d rather go see my friend Dan Sorrentino at Newtown Hardware for my sundries than some guy I don’t know that I have to walk the length of a football field to find.