This strategy works very well and has the potential for some great passive income. There are a few prerequisites and if you have them this could do really well for you. I'll discuss the prerequisites in a minute. First, here's the definition of the person you want to find for this partnership. Do you know of anyone that spends a lot of time utilizing the social aspects of the Internet...forums, posting comment to blogs, Facebook, Groups, etc? They aren't technical by any means, have zero desire to learn internet marketing and they aren't capable of much more than sending/receiving emails, filling out and submitting forms, stuff like that. And, they are content just knowing the basics. They have a career/job with job security and benefits and enjoy working outside the home and/or with other people. They would not become a marketer in any capacity if there life depended on it.
These same people wouldn't mind making a couple extra dollars if it was easy. They might check out an ad on Facebook that says that they can fill out a survey and make a couple bucks. They try it, make a couple of bucks and lose interest. If money is the only thing that they are getting out of filling the survey than they just aren't that interested. They will, however, spend a couple hours a day giving there opinions on some forum or web site where they managed to figure out the interface. Now...these are the people that we want, and they want us, they just don't know it yet. :)
They are building content for someone else and getting no monetary rewards from it. The content gets wrapped with AdSense ads which earn the web site owner money-per-click or audio ads play in the background earning the web site owner money-per-play. They are, in essence, discussing their passions and providing value and money is being made, so where's their cut? The web site owners are reaping all of the rewards and these people have to probably abide by some sort of rules in order to discuss their passions there. They may have heard of blogs and thought about starting one up, but have no idea how and don't find it worth it to pay anyone.
Well, I have approached some of these people with many ideas for some sort of partnership. I finally came up with a win/win situation that they have trouble declining. I setup the blog for these people and handle all of the promotion. They just blog away with no restrictions and wait for checks. Here's how. I know ahead of time what they are passionate about and what they enjoy writing about it. I look for offers/products/services that would do well with that 'niche' in the ad networks that I am part of. I provide them with my referring URL and have them create a quick account (and explain in detail how to do it). Now, any money that they earn, I will earn a small percentage. It gets better. The best marketers, in my opinion, are one's that don't sound like they are marketing to you. They are just telling stories and providing value. These partners that I get aren't marketers. They don't pretend to be and don't care to be. They just want an outlet to speak. There message is unbiased, honest and very effective.
A few issues with this...I'll address them all.
Who hosts the blog? You do. You did buy the hosting package that allows unlimited web sites to be hosted didn't you? :)
Who buys the domain? You do. It'll be worth the $10 per year.
Who installs the blog? Hopefully you. If you aren't able to, this is where you'll need to decide if it's worth the risk to fork out some further money.
How are the affiliate products to be promoted? Great question. You should be using a WordPress blog for this project. WordPress has a plugin called aLinks that you can setup to automatically hyperlink a word that shows up in a post to any URL that you want. When your partner is blogging he or she is bound to hit on some keywords that pertain to the niche. Have those words automatically link to the proper affiliate URL. On a side note, I would take my time with this. You don't have to turn it on right away. Get your partner blogging as soon as you can to start creating the valuable content that you need. Take your monetization strategy in steps. Carefully decide on the keywords to auto-hyperlink and turn on aLinks after you know the blog has already been indexed in Google. All posts created prior to turning aLinks on will also get hyperlinked on-the-fly.
Is getting 2nd tier commissions really worth it? It might be and it might not be but I usually negotiate to have a permanent graphical/text ad in the top of the right sidebar. Then it definitely becomes worth it.
You see, a lot of marketers I know, one's that I have helped get started, have blogs ready to go begging for content, but they sometimes get busy or pre-occupied with something else. They need a non-marketer to partner up with and add content for them. You're not going to get traffic without content. In my eyes, to partner with a non-marketer is a win-win.
As for promotion, try to get your partner to take advantage of all of the Social networks they are part of. Bookmark the best posts with Del.ici.ous and have your partner display your delicious feed in their FaceBook account for example. I don't generally get into any PPC marketing with this but I did one time when my partner 'accidentally' created a great post that worked well as a landing page. Any promotion that you do should be with your own money and time. Remember, your partner just wants to blog and that's it. You're the web site owner that he/she is providing content for, much like in the situation as they were in before, except the situation is not as one sided. Do your part and build the traffic and handle the technical end of it if you are able. The blogger will use the tool you give them as their creative outlet. You both should make some extra cash.... some passive income. Try it and see, let me know how it goes.
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Wed, Feb 6, 2008
Make Money Online