Imagine if you went at your online business with this attitude. Could you be the “Goto guru”?

One step you can do to semi-protect yourself is to cloak your affiliate link, either use something like goo.gl or bitly to shorten your link.

Or you can use a redirect script like found here

http://www.affiliatebeginnersguide.com/links_guide/php-redirect.html

I’ve used them all, I’ve even just put the unprotected link up ;-(

But recently I came across Affiliate Link Magic. I absolutely love this because its so darn simple and does more than just protect your link. It adds a Web 2.0 style pop-up that appears on the page of the product your promoting and there is an exit pop. You can use these to get opt ins to your list (what affiliate manager will let you build your list on their product)

Watch…

Now go save your commissions with Affiliate Link Magic. Get it before they raise the price, this one is a goodie…

And there are many many avenues to wealth available using the internet.

BUT…

I’ll bet that you’ve hit snags that make you question your decision. I know I have, and many times I just want to give up. Have you been or are you there?

Online marketing is tough sometimes. Before you fold up your dreams watch this short (6 minute) clip…

We all need a pick-me-up occasionally.

I for one got a dose of energy from that…how about you?

Colors have character, and say a lot about who you are – and who your products appeal to.

For example, look at blogs that review Xbox games or tech subjects. Colors you’ll often see are aqua and black, red and black, orange and black; black, black; black… and sometimes steel grey.

If your reviews involve presenting graphics – for example, screen shots of video games – you don’t want colors that clash with the graphics (no matter how much those colors “represent” you and your personality. Your best bet for enhancing photographs are neutral colors – or the ubiquitous black. Just remember black backgrounds are harder on the eyes – but they do make colors “pop” (which can be a good thing, with video game screenshots.)

If you’re reviewing “green” products, you might want to go with colors traditionally associated with nature – pale but bright spring greens, earth tones for accents, “natural” creams and linens – or sparkling white, with splashes of orange and lime. If you’re reviewing mystic products like Tarot card sets, or self-help or yoga tapes, you might want to use colors associated with unique, spiritual people – lilacs, soft mauves, dark midnight blue, black.

If you’re reviewing publicity and promotion products, “people” colors like orange and hot magenta convey liveliness, connection and an outgoing nature.

You will often see blue on business blogs: Blue is commonly said to represent “trust”. But the truth is, the best person to decide on your review blog’s image should be you – and your color choice should never be based on any particular product but on two key components:

• You and your personality
• Your topic

So whether you want to conform to common associations, or walk a different path – it’s really up to you.

But do put some thought into your blog’s color scheme. Don’t let it go to waste – make it “support” and subconsciously enhance the image, attitude – and topic genre – you want to portray.

You’ve quickly learned that relevancy and keeping it “real” is what reviews are all about. “You should never write for the search engines!”

Actually, that’s quite true. The most important aspect of any review is to create an honest one that speaks directly, friend to friend, to your reader.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use your review format intelligently, and boost your SEO a little in the process. After all, part of the whole principle of “being the best you can be” involves doing everything you can to achieve strong results.

Let’s start with a really overlooked component of your review – your introductory paragraph.

It’s an axiom in creative writing that one should always throw out the first paragraph, because writers tend to take too long “warming up”.

The same thing applies in writing affiliate marketing reviews. Get down to business straight away. Open with a punchy sentence that makes your reader blink – but then, straight away, tell him which product you’re going to be reviewing. Add a sentence or two about what, who, why and where. (Sounds like a press release, doesn’t it?)

This is one of the few times when creative writing and marketing reviews run parallel courses for a harmonious moment or two.

Generally, when a reader is buried in a fiction novel, he likes surprises.

When someone is earnestly seeking the solution to a problem, however, they like to know what they’ll be getting – so they can decide if reading your review is going to be worth their time.

A good introductory paragraph fulfils all these requirements – and sets your reader up for a useful and enjoyable use of his time.

On listening to some of the top names in internet marketing, it’s striking how they differ, when it comes to motivations, goals and methods.  Oh, some things are universal – like cloaking hop links so no one steals your commission. And agreeing that a strong domain name based on your primary long-tailed keyword phrase is a “must”.  And of course, solve problems for your list or target niche.

How Many Review Blogs Should You Have?

Unlike niche blogging, where you monetize blogs with Adsense or paid ads, you don’t need to have many affiliate review blogs at all. If your goal is to become a super affiliate and create an authority site, such as Rosalind Gardner’s, you may even get away with just one review blog.  In which case you’ll want to either give it a branded name, if you have one, or a highly generic name.  (Think Lynn Terry’s “Clicknewz.com” and Rosalind Gardner’s “NetProfitsToday.com”.)  If your niche has anything to do with online business or internet marketing, names like these convey the right impression as to subject matter, and allow you to review a wide range of marketing or business products, books, memberships and software.

With niche blogging, you may need up to 100 blogs to generate income, since each blog usually doesn’t – on an average – produce more than $40 a month. (Some produce much less, and one or two diamonds might produce more.)

Compare this with a review blog, where as few as one to a handful can make serious money for you.

To do this, you need to promote your reviews… as well as the blog that houses them! There are lots of different ways to do this – and they all relate to your topic (not your product.)

For example, say the topic around which your affiliate career revolves is “sailing”. You could create a Squidoo lens about sailing. You’d populate your Squidoo lens with 3 or 4 mini posts. One could be “nautical terms”; another “types of sailboats”; another, “tall ships” – and this is where it gets interesting – you could also include an eye-catching mini-article such as: “10 Worst Mistakes Inexperienced Sailors Make”.

Now, you’re doing all this because you found a product in ClickBank with an excellent commission rate, great sales page and high gravity. It’s called “The Newbies’ Sailing Guide”. You’re promoting it on your blog with one of your reviews.

Who do you want to buy the “The Newbies’ Sailing Guide”?

That’s right. People new to sailing. Think they’re going to be interested in “10 Worst Mistakes” much?

You bet!

At the end of your “10 Worst Mistakes”, your readers are so thankful to you for tipping them off on how to avoid or deal with potentially embarrassing or dangerous problems, you’ve already create a degree of trust. When they come to your final call to action – “To read more about sailing for Newbies, visit Sailing4Everyone.com” – they’re only too eager to see what else you have to say.

This link should take the reader, not to your product sales page – but to your review.

And your review will end with another call to action. “You can find many more tips like these at “The Newbies Sailing Guide”. (And that link does lead straight to your vendor’s sales page – via your affiliate hoplink!)

That’s just one way you can bring traffic to your review blog. Others involve:

• Press releases
• Article Marketing
• Other Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter
• Posting backlinked comments on related authority blogs

But no matter which mode of promotion you decide to use – check the guidelines of each site or social media platform first!

And don’t forget those disclosures and disclaimers!

The fact that there’s such a massive variety of products and topics in ClickBank not only gives you many niche topics to specialize in, but provides an added incentive for searchers to look for reviews they can depend on, rather than wasting time hunting through sketchy descriptions in the Marketplace.

Within the ideal affiliate marketer-list relationship, you are guiding your readers through sharp and hazardous rocks… and they’re trusting you to bring them safely ashore. Push your reader a bit too hard, and she will climb into a life raft that isn’t the right fit for her – and when she all of a sudden finds herself slammed into a rock, her confidence in you is going to be shaken. She’s going to head off to the next boat, to see if it was any better than yours.

The problem here? You didn’t show her what not to buy – what wouldn’t work for her. That’s why it’s important to be completely up-front in your reviews, and include disqualifying facts and statements – even if it means one less sale.

For example, let’s say you sum up a product like so…

“This product is not at all for newcomers to the game. It consistently makes assumptions that you’ll know sophisticated tracking terminology and assumes you hold a business masters’ degree. However, if you’re tired of a surfeit of “newbie” tutorials, this system will really give you something to sink your teeth into.”

Sure, you’ve lost the sale from your “newbie” reader that you would have had, if you’d kept quiet about the product’s complexity and extolled only its money-making potential. But sacrificing the sale is a good investment in the long run, because you stopped your “newbie” list member from wasting her money on a system she would have ultimately abandoned in frustration. And, had that happened, you would have forfeited her trust.

This way, you “lost” one sale… but you’re one important step closer to keeping that customer for life.

Take the couple minutes to watch and take notes….

                                …and then apply it to your Amazon blogs.  What don’t have one yet?  Oh my…I was under the impression you came here because you want to make money online!
Quick look at my Preview of How to Make Money With Hot Everyday Items

Enjoy