I had lost hope at finding reasonable domain names after the dot-com bust, but now I’m realizing you just have to be creative and current. You have to be agile – jumping onto each fad early before it saturates. Sometimes all it takes is a little widget, like a Jersey Shore name generator that people can post on Facebook and their own blogs. Twitter is another great way to spread the news about your site. Twitter search is a perfect way to find popular people who might be interested in spreading your new site.

So how do you come up with the next big viral marketing idea? Look at life through a marketing lens – watch for trends, pick up on comedy in everyday things that people can relate to, watch TV and stay current. Follow Digg, Reddit, and other social networking sites to monitor what’s hot. Google trends is another great way to find hot topics.

Once you find your great idea and successfully go viral, you still have more work to do – make sure you have a game plan to make money. Sell adspace? Adsense? T-shirts? Relevant affiliate deals? Build your SEO network? Sell your site? If you really hit it big, you can always sign a book deal.

The nice thing about this stuff is you can usually rubber stamp it. Once you build a name generator, you could use for for every hot MTV show, video games, and movies. WordPress blogs are pretty easy to mass-produce too… and it certainly easier if you have some lackeys to do some of the grunt work.

Keep the dream alive – going viral may not be a realistic expectation for anything, but the sites you can build may keep things interesting in comparison to boring, thin, affiliate sites and other stereotypical money-making sites.

Marketing Blogs

Hopefully these will be as entertaining and inspirational for you as they’ve been for me.

1. Ma.tt: Who better to read than the founder and owner of WordPress, the top blog engine.
2. Tim Ferriss: Author of The 4-Hour Workweek… for anyone who wishes the escape the 9-5 grind.
3. Seth Godin: SEO Genius, creator of Squidoo – he knows a little something about internet marketing…
4. Rachael Elnaugh: One of the UK’s most successful and well-known entrepreneurs.
5. Labor Liberator: Full of good business ideas.. how to make money with a blog-centered business.
6. Mashable: Follow the social networking scene – social networking startups and innovation
7. Top Rank Blog: Blog on the intersection of social media, digital PR, and SEM/SEO.
8. Breaking Free: All about starting your own business and quitting your day job.
9. Jim’s Marketing Blog: Jim’s had his own marketing business since the 90s and has helped countless companies improve their bottom-line.
10. Fresh Inc: Inc magazine’s staff blog  – read stories on insanely successful startups, venture capital, and the latest greatest business ideas.

I know this list isn’t comprehensive, but it should give you a good start. Whenever I find a killer blog I typically subscribe to its feed and check in with it once every few weeks to get some good ideas. Please share any marketing blogs you think I missed – love to hear your feedback!

So, you’ve figured out your niche market and have a website, and now you’ve arguably reached the toughest part – how do I get traffic to my site? Paying for traffic via banners and PPC does not always make sense and may not be feasible for your business. Or maybe you just want to supplement your current traffic sources. After all, SEO traffic is typically the best you can get – targeted, high-converting, and best of all, free (nothings actually free, but we often have more time than resources).

A general rules to follow is to make things descriptive and useful to your users. And just be natural! Over-optimizing wastes time and energy and can often hurt more than help.

Doing a little search engine optimization is usually a no-brainer, as you can often do 80% of the work with little time and effort. Here’s my list of 10 quick seo tips and advice to help get you started and improve your rankings.

1. Determine a couple keyword phrases for each page on your site. Don’t just guess what users will be search for – use Google’s and Wordtracker’s keyword tools to make the final descision. You can spend all your time optimizing for “green foosball tables”, but if only 10 people search that in a month, it’s obviously a complete waste of time. Before deciding on a keyword phrase, check how competitive it is. Search for your phrase and take note of the top 10 results in Google. Could you see your site ahead of some of the current results? Do you think you offer something more relevant? Last thing you want to do is to start an endless uphill battle with little chance of success.
2. Optimize all of your page titles. Your title has the most ranking weight for keywords, so you should at least make sure every page has a title containing the keyword phrase(s) it’s targeting. Make sure your title is 70 characters or less (here’s a great tool for optimizing site titles and descriptions. Unless your brand name is extremely important and will be searched by users, put your keywords first and and your brand name last (e.g. Regulation Foosball Tables | Foosball City).
3. Make use of the heading tags (<h1>, <h2>, etc). Make sure each page has an <h1> tag containing the main keyword phrase for the page. You can line up your h1 tag with your page title if you want, although I would consider changing it up a bit to be a little more natural (e.g. “Regulation Foosball Tables for Sale”). Use <h2> tags for secondary keyword phrases, if any.
4. Make sure your images have descriptive alt tags containing your keywords. Make it natural, and don’t make everything word-for-word the same (e.g. “professional foosball table”).
5. Make use of META descriptions, and write a unique one for each page. If you do not have time to add a unique one per page, then don’t bother adding one (identical descriptions may signal duplicate content to Google and the other search engines). Keep in mind that your page description will not provide any actual ranking power, so don’t bother keyword stuffing them – make them helpful to users to improve click-thru rates.
6. Link out to high quality, related sites. Some people speculate you can improve ranking by linking out to relevant sites. Even if that’s not the case, it still provides valuable resouces to your users, and may encourage sites to link back to you. If you’re linking to a spammy, shady, or otherwise non-trusted site (maybe from user-generated content) make sure you include the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
7. Make sure every page has unique content. It shouldn’t be too hard to have at least 200 words per page. Your content should of course contain your keywords, but don’t worry how often it shows up – use slightly different phrases in different contexts, keeping with the “be natural” theme (e.g. “foosball tables”, “regulation foosball table”, etc.).
8. Link to your own pages from within your content. This is especially important for blogs, as older posts get shoved into the archives or moved to page 3+ of your category pages. Look for terms that relate to other pages on your site and make them links. Ideally every page on your site will be within 2 clicks from your home page. You can also accomplish this by creating a sitemap page, linked to from your home page, that links to every page on your site (with appropriate anchor text for each page).
9. Sign up with Google Webmaster Tools. It’s completely free, and is a great resource for SEO. You can find out which of your pages are having issues, what pages are missing, what search terms your site is ranking for, and many other great things. You can also manually submit an xml sitemap, which can help Google index your pages faster and find new content. If you run a WordPress blog, there are several great plugins for automatically generating the sitemap.
10. Build backlinks, but make sure they look natural. If possible, have links to your site contain your keywords, although make sure to change them up a little bit. And have links pointing to pages other than your home page. You can do a few reciprocal links between sites, but try not to go overboard. Don’t waste too much time with link directories besides Yahoo! and DMOZ. If you really are a quality resource, you should be able to get at least a few relevant sites to link to you. And experiment with social networking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon to promote your site.

If you’re still hungry for more SEO tips and discussion, be sure to check out SEOmoz! Great resource, even if you just read the blog.

1. Sign up for some affiliate networks. I’d definitely start by signing up with Pepperjam and Commission Junction. I also recommend and have had good success with eBay. I’ve also used LinkShare with some success – your mileage may vary and I’m sure it just depends on which advertiser programs you want to sign up for.
2. Take a look at the available advertisers in your affiliate networks and start joining affiliate programs. You’ll want to try a bunch, it may take a few tries to find the ones that work best for you. If your affiliate network provides program payout history, be sure to follow this closely – you want to weed out the bad eggs (there are a lot of advertisers I don’t trust). You want to choose niche affiliate markets that payout a good amount of money (face it… you can only make so much off $5 items…. go for something you can get commissions that make it worth your time). But at the same time, avoid things that are likely too competitive. Do some Google searches and research your top competitors. See if you think you can beat some of them. Also it’s best to pick niche markets that you’re knowledgable about and like. This will come in handy for step #3…
3. Create your website and make it better than the typical affiliate site. If you’re going to be lazy and throw up a few affiliate links without much thought and effort, you’re just wasting your time. Keep your site’s focus on 1 or 2 related markets – if you want to get into more niche affiliate markets, then create more websites. You don’t have to be a expert on your niche, but definitely put a little thought and effort into this part. If you don’t have a nice-looking website, be sure to check out some free templates you can use at a site like www.oswd.org. Now add some content! Write some reviews and add your own descriptions. Try adding some social networking components – user-generated content (if moderated) can be great. Make your site look professional and clean (that does not mean complex and complicated!). Have a friend look at your site – if it looks spammy, clean it up! Make sure you know a little something about SEO (search engine optimization) – start by reading some of the great articles at SEOmoz. The content on your site is really going to help for step 4…
4. Now drive traffic to your niche affiliate site! Experiment with some PPC campaigns. Google Adwords is the best. Try Microsoft AdCenter as well – they don’t have the traffic but often have decent conversion rates. I’d try Yahoo as well but I’d be very careful – I’ve noticed more click fraud – you have to monitor and block certain domains. The content you created is really going to help your quality score in Google AdWords. Make sure your landing pages target the keywords you bid on, and make sure your ad text matches up as well. You can definitely do some SEO and start building some backlinks – nothing beats “free” traffic. But whatever you don’t do, don’t completely skip out on running ad campaigns. You need to get some traffic and test out your advertisers and see what converts.
5. You gotta have conversions. Now that you have some affiliate programs that look like they could work, you need to get your conversion rate as high as possible. Optimization is a must – you have to get used to testing everything! Look into doing some split testing, rotate ads, change out content. Move things around! Target more longtail keywords – they often have the highest conversion rates! Research your competition in the same niche affiliate market and find out what they’re doing. Make sure you have some sort of stats installed on your site (Google Analytics are great) to monitor your traffic. Find out what keywords your visitors are coming in on. Find out your bounce rate and try to keep it low. Find out how visitors navigate through your site. Testing and optimization are the name of the game!

I hope this helps you get started in marketing your niche affiliate sites. I tried to keep this relatively short, although there are a vast amount of resources out there on every aspect of this. I’ll try to go into more detail on some of these items in the near future. Good luck finding your niche!

We’ll begin by evaluating a niche blog I recently found in the ecology niche, The Chic Ecologist.

The Chic Ecologist website

The green niche is hot and growing quickly, so how do you define yourself? The Chic Ecologist stands out as a blog devoted to chic and stylish products and companies that are sustainable and eco-friendly. Don’t mistake it for a hippie site, you won’t find hemp and patchouli here. High design and functionality (even architecture) is paramount. Catering to a hip younger crowd as well as the high end market they feature articles on everything from eco friendly diamonds to green roofs.

This is not a limited market either. The green industry is experiencing huge growth as people become more aware of global warming and the ecological impact of our industrial and consumer-centric society. The Chic Ecologist is a dynamic resource promoting green solutions and eco-friendly products by socially conscious businesses. It could be used as a platform for launching new ideas and products by smaller companies through product reviews and sustainable business spotlighting. With an explosive surge in green design and research of new ecologically sustainable materials such as bamboo, recycled plastics as well as reclaimed and repurposed products, many businesses are looking for that green edge.

Marketing of this niche is also gaining popularity as it’s now cool to be green. Although the cost of oil has dramatically dropped from its highs during this current recession, dependency and supply concerns for oil and gas are driving new technologies for renewable energy and products less dependent on traditional energy sources. Blogs such as The Chic Ecologist are great platforms to test, prototype and launch new green products by generating interest and buzz within their target market.

I do have a few suggestions for the site. I know not everyone is looking to make money money on their blogs, but I would still suggest the author look into affiliate programs to promote that fit well in the green niche (which shouldn’t be too difficult). A few green eBay listings couldn’t hurt, either. They promote a lot of good products, but unfortunately wouldn’t get any credit for it if someone were to make a purchase.

And of course, Adsense clicks and affiliate conversions are impossible without traffic. I’m not sure how much SEO work they’ve done, but I would definitely suggest making friends with other green niche bloggers and exchanging some links.

I would also consider reducing the size of some the images, since 2MB is a lot to load for the home page. I’d probably use jpeg’s instead of .png’s for photos, and maybe increase the compression a tad.

Questions? Comments? Let me know your thoughts of this review and if this is something you would like to see more of in the future. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date on niche marketing ideas!

Co-branding can be very cost effective, particularly for small online businesses.  However, if you choose the wrong partner, or too many partners, it might be more harmful than beneficial.

Adding Partners to your Website
As a small business you need to be cautious with your marketing budget.  When you add a partner to your website you need to ensure that you’re going to see strong and positive results from the union.  These positive results can include more traffic to your website, increased online sales, or more contact with your customers.  Online branding can be costly so be sure to choose partners that can benefit your business.

Co-branding can be described as a variety of activities that include:

• Joint promotions
• Value endorsements
• Joint ventures
• Alliances

Co-branding works best when both you and your partner company each provide a related service or product to the same types of customers.

Powerful Co-branding

Studies show that most online users like the idea of co-branding because it helps them to make decisions about the hundreds of brand name products that they come into contact with on the Internet.  When top-quality brands join together in a partnership it strengthens their customer’s approval.  If you have a lesser know brand it will be to your benefit to partner up with a more well known brand so that your overall image is improved and so that you get more exposure on the Internet.  And if a popular brand partners up with a lesser known brand it won’t harm the popular brand.  Your best bet is to partner up with a company that is equal to you. A partnership needs to make sense and customers need to understand the connection.

Guidelines for Co-branding
If you have the right partner you can share the costs of marketing as well as strengthen your company brand.  You’ll also have access to a larger customer base.  Following are some important co-branding considerations:

• What does your co-brand partnership say to your customers?  Will it make your customers feel better about themselves?
• What do you and your partner have in common?  Are both of your products innovative?  Are they dependable?  You want to make sure that your image makes sense for your current customer base.  You don’t want to lose your current customer base but instead you want to build on it.
• How does your co-branding partnership benefit your customers?  Will it save them money?  Or will it save them time?  Your marketing campaign should make the benefit very clear to your customers.
• Your goal with co-branding should be to find the best solutions for your customers.
• There should be an equal value for both brands in the partnership.  You need to have an equal partnership or your marketing strategy will be uneven.
• Will your customers easily be able to see the connection and value of your partnership?
• Does the co-branding partnership bring you into contact with new customers?

The above questions need to be answered before you join in a co-branding partnership.  Joint promotions take a great deal of time and thought to be implemented correctly.  However, when done correctly and accurately, a co-branding partnership can bring you results that are far better than other traditional internet marketing methods. One of the basic rules of internet marketing is:  take your message, content, and promotions to your customers rather than focusing too much energy on the effort of trying to bring customers to your website.

Integrating Partnership Products
When it comes to co-branding partnerships you need to take the time to include the benefits of both brands into the overall design of your marketing promotions.  This way your customers will understand the connection between both products or services.

Simply putting your company logo, or a link to your website, on another company’s website will save you time and money but at the same time may cause you to lose some potential customers.  Co-branding that is successful never leaves your customers wondering exactly what website they are on.  Partnerships should improve a customer’s shopping experience by helping them to make buying decisions.  You’ll want to exchange content with your partner so that you both expand your expertise in the industry.  However, you’ll need to incorporate this content into your website so that it flows naturally and fits in with your own content.  The end result will be beneficial to both of you when you maintain professional consistency.

Complementary Partners
Your website will be more legitimate and competitive when you have co-branding content that is well integrated into your own web pages.  Co-branding will only help your business if it complements the business goals you have defined for your company.  Always keep your business goals in mind no matter what internet marketing strategy you’re trying to incorporate into your business.  This means that all your website content, promotions, and activities with your co-branding partners encourages your customers to follow through with the sales action.

Joint Ventures
A joint venture is where you team up with another marketer in a compatible niche for what should be an equally rewarding promotion or project.  Often times joint ventures involve promoting each other’s products as affiliates or even working together on a mutually beneficial product launch.

Some people think “joint venture” means getting the biggest guru you can find to promote your product and make you rich.  Those people are wrong!  Most experts say that the best place to start with joint ventures is with your peers and friends, of which most are probably at a similar level as you are.  Even if you have to get out and meet some new people, there’s a good chance you aren’t going to get one of the “big time” marketers to promote your product if you don’t have previously established relationship with them.
A “joint venture” is as much about relationship building as it is about selling products.  Sometimes in the beginning you may have to “give a little” more than what you get back—and that’s OK, because it’s part of the relationship building process.

Here are some tips for finding joint venture partners:

• Search the search engines.  Find people with related products and services that you can contact and get to know.
• Go to events and seminars related to your niche or product, or general internet marketing seminars.
• Ask your customers.  Send an email out to your list to fish for prospective partners.
• Visit forums and online discussion boards, and ask around.
• If you find a potential joint venture partner, don’t be afraid to sign up for their mailing list and/or purchase one of their products.
• Consider how working with your competition could pay off for both of you.

This is by no means the ultimate, exhaustive traffic bible, but this should get you started. Good luck getting on your traffic endeavors – website traffic is really the key. If you have traffic, you can make money… it may be the most difficult game on the internet.

Word of Mouth Marketing
The second most common way that people find new websites is word of mouth.  Search engines are the number one way.  Word of mouth can be generated from message board postings by virtual strangers or by e-mailing friends.  Effective word of mouth is known as “viral marketing” and is one of the biggest success stories on the Internet.

Viral marketing works in much the same way urban legends and funny jokes on the Internet work as they are forwarded all around the world.  Viral marketing takes advantage of the socialization needs of society.  No matter how small the social network starts out as, effective viral marketing can turn a small unknown company into one that is known everywhere in the online world.  Some of the biggest companies on the Internet rely on viral marketing to stay successful.  You can set up an effective e-mail marketing strategy without a big budget or a lot of technology.  All you need to do is set up an e-mail signature that has a marketing message within it.  This marketing message will be attached to any e-mail that your company sends.  Signatures are easily set up through Outlook and other e-mail programs.

You can take the concept of e-mail messages one step further by attaching your marketing message to all mail that is outgoing.  This is done through a simple process known as “mail rerouting”.  When you use this process you can track the results as well as know for sure that every outgoing message will look and feel the same no matter whether you or your employees send the mail.

Something for Free
Everyone wants to get something that is free.  When you offer something that is free the word will spread very quickly.  And free offers will bring traffic to your website.  However, most small online businesses can’t afford to give away much for free.  What you can do is become creative and offer a free product for the first 20 people who buy another product from your website.  This can be as simple as movie tickets.

Message Boards and Chatrooms
Message boards and chatrooms are great places for word of mouth and viral marketing to flourish.  This is particularly true for those people who are 25 years of age and younger.  In chatrooms people share ideas and concepts and this can lead to some great leads for your business.
E-mail makes it easy for people to share ideas and concepts with others anywhere in the world.  If you can attach your marketing message to these infectious e-mails you’ll be able to create a buzz and stir about your product or service.  When potential customers recognize your logo or company name you’re on your way to gaining trust, credibility, and the close of a sale.

Domain Names
One last thing to remember when you’re trying to spread information about your company is the effectiveness of a memorable domain name.  You want to pick a domain name that is easy to remember, easy to spell, and that relates to what you’re selling.  When people easily find your website you’ll want to make sure that your home page content is dynamic so they keep returning.

Come back for part 5 of the 10 part series on target traffic generation.

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