http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/ An Poker Affiliate Forum and Community For Poker Affiliates To Discuss Poker Affiliate Programs en Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:58:55 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/images/styles/ShinyBlue/misc/rss.jpg http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/ http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/832-my-marketing-workout-routine.html Mon, 11 May 2009 14:11:12 GMT One of my personal passions is playing soccer. At the moment, I'm a bit out of shape. When I was 21 "the first time around," I was younger, and able to bounce back quickly after taking some time off. Its been 2 years since I've last played - I'm much older now, as I will be shortly celebrating my 21st birthday for the 15th time. And with age comes some physical complications, most notably I have back issues. My back isn't in the best of shape, as I injured it in a fall some time ago and it hasn't been the same since.

Because of my back injury, and surely due to the fact that I am getting older - in order to reach match fitness to the point where I can play soccer without either killing myself, or re injuring my back - I have to prepare myself by getting into shape. Trust me when I say, I have made a few "comebacks" before I was ready. Each time I failed to prepare. As a result of my lack of preparation, I hurt myself unnecessarily and it took all the longer to both heal and get into shape.

Ideally, in order to get back into shape, one is wise in developing a workout routine to snap themselves into a more optimal physical condition. A proper workout routine will allow me to focus on strengthening and conditioning the desired muscle groups, providing me the results I need to get back onto the pitch in the best shape possible by engaging in exercises and activities targeting these areas needing "help."

If I can develop a plan to get back into shape using specific exercises and activities, should I also not be able to develop a "workout routine" and specific game plan to get my website back into "optimal marketing fitness?" I propose that I can.

Developing a Marketing fitness plan for my website

My website's fitness plan looks like this:

Each day, the first thing I do is some warm-ups. I bring myself up to speed by checking my email, the forums I deem important, and look for any news via my news sources that might be of interest to me and my site's visitors. I respond and participate accordingly.

Upon completion of my warm-ups, I get into the heavy lifting. Bulking up my site's content is the most important aspect of my website at the moment. To add bulk to my site, I create 1 new page of content. It might be a new blog post, or a support page for one of the sections of my website... Regardless, I'm in the growth stage right now, with very little true content, so I want to get a brand new page with substance. When creating this page, I try to stay targeted, and plan my linking strategy and keywords accordingly. My form, making sure I "feel" each "lift" is important during this strength building exercise.

After creating the new page, I "stretch" a little bit. Its important to keep from "tightening up." So during this time, I again check my email again, responding appropriately. I visit this forum ... and because I am stretching, I try to stretch myself by reaching out to one new person and to ask for a link exchange. I additionally look for any new posts in which I can productively contribute to.

Next, I focus on my website's tone. I select one page, with the goal of optimizing and updating it. I don't go through a total rewrite, I just simply make sure the page flows to my liking in terms of the content's focus and interest to potential visitors. I additionally verify the h-tags are appropriate, compelling, and targeted. Key words, phrases and concepts are emphasized, and the page is linked properly to and from other pages. This exercise is designed to tone my website, working to knock my existing content into better shape. This particular exercise could be compared to doing my curls with less weight, designed to sculpt or tone my targeted muscle groups.

I stretch a bit more, maybe even taking a break for lunch or to spend some time with the Mrs, and then its back to the "gym."

I finish off my "workout" with exercises in endurance. I can compare this to riding the bike, or getting on the tread mill. During this final portion of my daily routine, I research and draft 3 to 5 articles that I plan to sell. Additionally, I review yesterday's articles of the same nature, re-reading and appropriately editing them. Currently, my websites are my only source of income (which isn't saying much yet), so I need to do something to get positive cash flow TODAY. What better way to do so than to draft a library of articles for future sale?

Whether it is my website's development, or my physical body, I know which areas I need to target or "work out" to get into shape. Working my body's muscle groups will get me ready to play soccer again. Having a written, focused, and disciplined workout routine for my website will help me whip it into shape in a "smart" targeted, methodical and deliberate manner. Both plans will take time, as well as effort - but each is a written program designed specifically to strengthen those areas that need the most attention to help me accomplish my goals. ]]> OPC http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/832-my-marketing-workout-routine.html http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/830-mistakes-newer-affiliate-taking-too-much.html Thu, 07 May 2009 16:18:56 GMT While I cannot go so far as to say I am a new affiliate, I am definitely new to being an "affiliate," so to speak. Upon the passing of UIGEA, I mailed it in and only recently returned to the online world. When I "returned," I hadn't the slightest clue that I had no clue what the hell I was doing. I made several mistakes in the two short months I've been back. I do not feel that I am alone in making these mistakes and I wanted to share some of these errors in thinking and execution with the masses in hopes of helping others to not repeat my mistakes, as well as perhaps assisting someone in "righting the ship."

I decided to get into the affiliate game after my business was lost a few months back. Without drifting into details of that whole other story, I weighed my options and decided that I had some success as a poker affiliate, I figured I could easily get back into the game and make a whole lot of money really quick. I hopped onto the computer, purchased a domain and went to work. I failed to consider that I didn't know how to build or code a website. Additionally, while I had heard of SEO, I did not know what it was, nor how to get it... I figured I'd write it, and I'd rank - sounds easy.

I gave myself a crash course in website design, and threw something together quite quickly. I will credit myself with being a fast learner, so I was able to grasp many of the design concepts rather quickly. I am far from a master in design or programming, but I now understand it... slightly.

My website's look and feel was lacking severely. I was never truly happy with it, so I kept playing with the look, changing the menu bar, changing the color. Additionally, I wasn't getting the hits I felt I deserved, so I would "wordsmith" everything. I'd make adjustments to the wording of my content while I was learning about different search marketing concepts. As a result, my pages were anything but reader friendly. It was quite a mess.

I found myself a lost soul. I didn't really have a target market. Additionally, I offered very little that drove people to my site. When I was in the business before, I had a regular following on my poker blog, and would hold some free tournaments on my main affiliate site. At least then I had something to offer, giving people reason to visit my site. At the moment, I failed to come up with one reason to visit my site - other than to see what I was doing. And really, I'd been gone from the business for too long that most people would not even bother to notice me, let alone care enough to drop by.

What did I do? I kept tweaking content in hopes the search engines would show me some love - still didn't happen. I then came up with four or five ideas that would drive people to my site. These ideas, unfortunately, either involved something complex (over my head in my current level of comprehension) and time consuming, or were things everyone else was doing - many of them doing it quite well. For some reason, I decided that it was going to take a full service website to get traffic - I had to do it all. And again, I had to do it myself.

I spent countless hours trying to figure out how to write a program to do certain things, or how to go about doing this, that, everything. I was scatterbrained, a mess, and ridiculously unorganized - all while not having even 1 "purpose" in my website's existence.

Randy Ray started a thread in this forum that got me thinking - "May Goals." I really had no specific goals - other than "doing it all" myself. Truth be told, it won't ever happen. This thread forced me to take an objective look at myself, my strengths, and reality. I examined my skill sets, as well as my weaknesses. I determined I had become so consumed in trying to be everything that I was unable to be anything at all. That's a tough pill to swallow.

I made up my mind that I was going to make three lists. The first list being "things I can do and do well," while the second was "things I can't do." This really helped me focus my abilities. From there, I made a third list. This list contained items that I could not do myself, but I could farm out or "ask for help" in a sense.

There's no need for me to reinvent the wheel. An example of something appearing on this list was my desire to offer a feed of just guaranteed prize pool poker tournaments. I was trying to figure out how to compile and offer my own feed. I had known for a while someone else had such a feed they offered to other affiliates, but I wanted to do it myself. Why not offer theirs? They provide it as a service (with conditions attached of course), but hell, why not farm that out so I can both focus on things I can do, and accomplish my goal of offering this to my site's visitors - and finally at least have 1 purpose for my site?

Instead of spending 15 hours a day, seven days a week researching how to do stuff, and making my sub-par site worse than it already was; by adopting this overall strategy, I can now free up an abundance of time to focus on my strengths. Being spread to thin, I was unable to do anything well.

My site is still not where I want it to be, but it is now at least on its way. By accepting that I cannot be and do everything, I can take my 15 hour work day and better utilize my time. I am a writer. I can spend time writing quality, human friendly content of interest for myself - and also break into providing content for others. I can finally focus on providing something... something of quality to my site's visitors - which will in turn drive the bottom line.

My advice to newer affiliates, or even those who are struggling (myself included) is to do some soul searching. Figure out what you can do well, and that which you cannot. If its something you can't do - either lose it or farm it out. Ask for help in areas you're deficient in. Offer your services where you show strength and expertise. Scratch someone else's back in exchange for them scratching yours. It is not a crime to subscribe to someone else's service, or to buy content, pay for SEO, or to hire someone to build links.

You don't have to "be everything." I don't have to be everything. We just have to be and do something (not everything) - and be or do it well in order to succeed. Finding a sense of direction and analyzing one's strengths and shortcomings is a great way to do that. Doing so really helped me to focus, as well as prioritize. I'm not "there yet," but at least now I have somewhat of a road map, and am beginning my journey with far less a load on my back.

I apologize for the length of this rambling session, especially being my first blog post here in the forum. I hold out hope that this post helps at least one person. ]]> OPC http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.com/forums/blogs/opc/830-mistakes-newer-affiliate-taking-too-much.html