Blog | Best Affiliate Marketing Tools

How to Get My Website Ranked in the Search Engines

November 6, 2019January 6, 2019 by John Crossley

If you are looking for how to get my website ranked in the Search Engines, then you have come to the right place. Getting your website found by the search engines is the first move to getting the key ingredient to monetising your website – TRAFFIC.

There is a key difference between getting your website indexed into the search results and actually getting it ranked anywhere near where you can get that traffic. In this post I will describe those differences, share some hints and tips on how to get your content ranking as high as it can and then tell you how to ensure the Search engines can actually find your website with ease.

Let’s start with the differences between ranking and indexing when it comes to Search Engines.

The Difference Between Ranking & Indexing

One of the things that people new to the online world get a little confused about is the difference between getting your post or website indexed into the search engines and the ranking of that post.

The search engines are actively looking for high-quality content for its users, and Google is really good at finding your website and content. Bing and Yahoo, not so much but we will delve into this a little deeper later on.

If your latest blog post is showing as indexed into Google (for example). This means that Google has found your post. Whether that is via your sitemap or if you are using the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. But that doesn’t mean it will be immediately ranked, and especially will not always be ranked where you want it to be.

Once the search engines have reviewed a number of factors about your content is the point where it will be ranked somewhere in the results.

To get to the best position for your business, which is on page one you need to know what the search engines are looking for.

Get Access to Awesome Training, Awesome Websites and Expert Help & Support for Your Online Business

What are the Search Engines Looking for?

To answer this, the first part is a question for you – when you type in a keyword into the search engines, what are you looking for?

We are looking for the best result that will:

Answer our question or solve our problem
Be totally relevant to what we were searching for
Not have a corrupt or slow website experience
Understandable.

If you are searching for a term through a search engine, they want to be able to give you the best result straightaway. They are constantly checking new and existing content to see if it still does. Being able to rank as high as possible is every website owners dreams and there are some simple techniques that will help you along the way.

Let’s go through some hints and tips, prior to sharing with you how to tell the search engines about your website.

Keyword Research

Blindly writing content will not help you in your quest, one of the first tasks you need to complete prior to writing your article or recording your video is keyword research.

If you are just starting out, you are much better off going for the ‘low-hanging-fruit’ keyword, as this givs you a better chance of getting ranked higher up the rankings.

If you are not too sure of what keyword research is at this point, check out my guide on Effective Keyword Research.

But by targeting keywords that have regular traffic, but lacks a lot of other competing posts. With a well written article, you could definitely get ranked higher up. Even though when you complete a search there will be millions of results, only the top few will be relevant to the actual keyword. The remainder of the list will be the next best results.

Get 30 Free Searches with Our Recommended Keyword Research Tool – Jaaxy

High Quality Content

The search engines are looking for high-quality content that is highly relevant and actually does a good job of answering any questions or resolving any problems that the reader was searching for the first place. If it is to do with whether to buy a product, have they thoroughly reviewed it and written well for it, to help you make a decision.

But what you will find is that whilst there might be competing posts for the keyword you are targeting, they will not all be offering the best content out there. They are just the next best.

A perfect example of this is there are plenty of posts out there that just have 500 words. They also don’t always fully answer your question. This means that you need to go away and find another post that might fill in the blanks from the first one.

Most SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) experts suggest that you target at least 1500-2000 words. But these words need to be fully relevant. Don’t just type content for the sake of it and there is a key reason for this.

Specifically Google, reviews your whole post not just the keyword you targeted in the title. If you type up a 2,000 word high-quality article on a given subject, you could actually be ranked against any keyword or key-phrase within that article.

Another point with your content is that it needs to help, and ideally written as though you were talking to someone you know. Make sure that it is understandable and also worth a spell check. Whatever your niche, you are building an authority with it… anything that effects the quality of your site will affect the next topic – Engagement.

Visitor Engagement

This is the hardest one to achieve for a new website owner – getting organic traffic to visit your website and actually engage with it. The easiest way is by adding comments to your posts.

The search engines like these comments for two reasons:

It shows people are interested in your article, found it helpful and wanted to add a quick question or thanks to it.
It adds content to your post.

That’s right, you could have written a 2,000 word article that ends up showing as close to 10,000 words when comments start coming and with your replies.

As you start to gain these comments or organic traffic visits your website, the better your rankings will become as it all shows that people find your article useful and this is a big tick from the search engines towards improving your rankings.

I would also advise you against buying traffic too, It might make it look like your website is getting a lot of visits. But in my experience, it is not really traffic (normally a load of bots) and you have a huge spike in traffic, but then when the time is up it shows as a massive fall in traffic. This is the bigger impact. It shows the search engines that you have lost loads of (fake) traffic.

Stay true and create regular content and the engagement will come. The more often you can post quality content the better. Search engines love fresh content.

Mobile Friendly Website

If you have a website that looks great on desktop, but looks awful on mobile devices… guess what, this will impact your rankings. Google recently changed their search algorithms meaning that websites that were mobile friendly would get better rankings than those that are not mobile friendly.

This can also be factored in with your web hosting, if your web hosting slows your website down a little, this could impact the user experience and hence affect your rankings.

Does Your Website have HTTPS?

Search engines are constantly looking for ways to improve security, and users want a website they can trust. By having an SSL Certificate on your website, it has shown to rank better in the search engines down to that trust factor. If you have a website, but do not want to pay through the nose for an SSL certificate, there are web hosts out there that provide an SSL Certificate as part of their membership.

Do Not Use Duplicate Content

At this point I would like to point out something that will have a detrimental factor on your rankings – Duplicate Content!

Copying someone else’s content is the cowards way of producing content and the Search Engines reward that cowardice with negative rankings.

Please do not be tempted to copy and paste someone else’s work, that is Plagiarism.

I would also suggest you stay away from any products that claim to be on autopilot by using high-quality content – guess what, they are duplicating someone else’s work?

To be successful and rank well, do the hard work yourself. You will see the rewards from it.

Rankings Do Not Sit Still

One thing I would like for you to understand at this point is the fact that rankings do not typically sit still. Just because you get one post ranked higher, it doesn’t mean that they will all rank high.

But by having a high ranking post, it can positively affect the rankings of your other posts. Consistency is the key to success.

Online Marketers will tell you that you need to remain consistent with posting high-quality content 3-5 times a week. That is a great target to sit with. The more active your website is, the better your rankings will be.

But what some bloggers are unaware of is the impact of taking a break can have on their rankings. I remember a blogger I know talking about that as he had started earning good money from his blog, he was going to go travelling for 6 weeks.

We would all love to do that, but he didn’t realise the impact on his site as he didn’t post any content for that 6 weeks. This told the search engines that it was not active anymore. When he started posting content again when he was back, it definitely took longer to get back to where he had been before.

If all you can achieve at the moment is one post a week, then stick to it – Google loves consistency and you can tell them how frequently you plan on posting content too.

You might think that I personally prefer creating content for Google, but when you look at the numbers you will find that making sure your content is Google Friendly will have more of an impact than Bing or Yahoo, but by making sure it is Google Friendly you are also making it ready for Bing and Yahoo too.

To get your content ranked, we need to first get your website indexed into the Search Engines. We do this by submitting a sitemap to Google and to Bing. We will be starting with Google.

How to get your Website onto Google

Between Google and Youtube (which is owned by Google) they own two thirds of the search traffic online.

That is why you need to ensure it gets onto Google and is right to get ranked high enough. You will get traffic through Bing and Yahoo, but we are going to start with Google.

Google is very good at finding new content and is actively looking for new content to submit to its search index. But there are also a few things you can do to make it happen a little quicker.

Using an SEO plugin such as All-in-One SEO or Yoast is a great start for making sure your website is search engine friendly. the next stage is using a free tool that Google provides called Google Search Console.

Related Post: How to Submit a Sitemap to Google

Google Search Console

You may have seen it around called Google Webmaster Tools, but it is the same thing but the Search Console is the updated version and is so much easier to use for your SEO strategies. Here is my complete guide on Google Search Console.

By adding your website to Google Search Console, you can submit a sitemap to it so that Google can crawl your website fully and understand what the structure is like, what content is included and index it ready for ranking it.

They also include a cool tool called URL Inspection. It allows you to request indexing. Why would you do that? A new website wants to get into the search results as early as possible, right?

The easiest way to add your website to Google Search Console is by having a Google Analytics account. You are going to want to fully use these tools to get your website ranked and understand the traffic you are receiving. See below, the relevant guides to do this:

Related Post: Google Analytics Tutorial for Beginners

Submit a Sitemap to Google

By submitting a sitemap to Google, they will regularly crawl your website for new content and rank it. But I personally use the URL Inspection tool to great effect with a new website and manually request indexing on every new post I write. You then get to a point where you can get indexed within a couple of hours or even minutes with the right methods and quality content.

If you have followed my guide to adding your website to Google Search Console, submitting a sitemap takes seconds to do.

From the left-hand menu in Google Search Console, select ‘Sitemaps’. Add the URL for your sitemap (typically your domain name followed by /sitemap.xml and you are good to go.

Even if all you did was install the All-in-One SEO plugin and submit your sitemap to Google, they would find and rank your content in due course.

How to get your Website onto Bing & Yahoo

We must not discount Bing and Yahoo, as they still have close to the other third of the global search traffic. But they are not as good as Google at finding your content. You definitely need to submit a sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure they start crawling your website and content.

You will notice that I am talking about the two of them together and that is because they are the same search engine. Whether people use Bing or Yahoo, they are actually the same search engine. If you submit your sitemap to Bing, you will be indexed into both Bing and Yahoo via Bing Webmaster Tools.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Whilst Google will find your website, even if you didn’t submit a sitemap. Bing does seem to take its time to find your content, let alone indexing and ranking it.

So the first step you need to complete is creating a Bing Webmaster account. You can use either a microsoft, google or Twitter account to sign up with Bing Webmaster Tools. Follow this link to get started.

Submitting a Sitemap to Bing & Yahoo

The first step once you have created an account is to add a website to your account. Start by adding your URL in the box that looks like the image below.

Once you have done this, it now asks for your sitemap that goes with it. I have used my other website as an example below. Make sure you leave your traffic as All Day. Until you know when your traffic will be around, there is no point guessing.

It will then take you to the part where you need to verify that you own the URL, that you are going to add to Bing Webmaster tools.

Again it will give you the option of copy and pasting a code into the header of your website. But this means any time you update or change the theme of your website, you will need to redo it. There is an easier way.

When you look at option 2: you will see a long combination of numbers and letters. It will normally start with a number then go into captial letters. Just copy that combination. (Do not add any symbols or punctuation marks).

Then we are going to go back to our WordPress editor and go into the general settings of out All-in-One SEO Plugin.

If you scroll down the general settings, you will get to a section called Webmaster Verification. There are 3 options, the first being Google. (This is the alternative way than using Google Analytics).

The second is for Bing Webmaster Tools. Just add that code to that box. Make sure you scroll down and select save.

Now, you need to go back to Bing Webmaster Tools and click ‘Verify’.

That’s it, you are done verifying your website and submitting a sitemap to Bing.

This will load you to your Bing Webmaster’s dashboard. It probably won’t show a lot yet, but on the left hand menu, if you select ‘Configure My Site’.

You will see a menu heading called Sitemaps, select it. You should see a screen like the one below, and whether it was successful or not. (We know it was successful, as the verification would not have worked if you had an issue).

This will show a Last Crawl section. Now considering Google last crawled my site yesterday, Bing has not crawled my sitemap since the 30th December. This shows just how you need to tell Bing about your website, and I would also suggest that whilst you get going, don’t be afraid to resubmit your sitemap, via the options on this page too.

Final Conclusion

The first step to getting your website and content ranked within the search engines is to first get indexed. Submitting your sitemap to Google, Bing and Yahoo will tell them to start reviewing your content regularly. But that is only the start.

If I am honest, the best way to get your content ranked is “Creating High Quality Content that Helps!”.

Pure and simple, as long as you are doing just that, the URL Inspection tool is a great feature to use with Google. If they see that you are creating high-quality content on a regularly basis, they will start to automatically start crawling your website more frequently to a point where you may not need to use it.

But a new website or a struggling website can definitely work off those 2 things, quality content and posting it regularly.

Hopefully now you know what it takes to get your website ranked in the search engines, but I will leave you on one last thought.

One of the key things we want is getting our content ranked high enough so everyone can see it and start clicking on our website. Everyone wants that, but what we sometimes lack is realistic timescales.

A new website will struggle to acheive this straightaway. The search engines want trust, we as readers want trust and the website owners want trust.

It is a big trust cycle, we do not get to know someone well enough to trust them straightaway – It works like that for rankings.

If you post 3 articles a week for 3 months, that is 36 articles. That shows the search engines you are starting to get serious about this website gig. Another 3 months at the same rate, that is 72 articles. That is typically when most websites start to get organic rankings and organic visitors coming onboard.

So my point is, submit your sitemap and remain consistent with creating high quality content that is better than what you find in the search engines for the same keyword you are targeting and give it 6 months. You will definitely see some positive results with regards your rankings.

If you find you are struggling get your website or online business up and running or want to find a way of learning everything you need to know the right way with support. Then I do suggest you read up on my No.2 Recommended Product, On first glance they may seem like it only works for affiliate marketing but online marketing is the same regardless of the business model. They offer fantastic education, awesome website tools and experts on hand to help with any queries or problems you may have. Check out my review of Wealthy Affiliate and see how their training can transform your online business.

If you have any questions on this topic or anything related to it, please write them in the comments below and I will definitely come back to you with an answer as soon as I can.

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google – The Easy Way!

November 6, 2019January 4, 2019 by John Crossley

If you have been searching for how to submit a sitemap to Google, then you have definitely come to the right place. Whatever your online business, getting your SEO strategies off to a great start will work towards your goals of achieving high rankings and that all important traffic that will help you achieve your targets online.

In this guide, I will be describing what is a sitemap, how to create a sitemap and how to submit that sitemap to Google via Google’s own Search Console.

What is a Sitemap?

Put simply, it is a map of your website. It lists all the posts and pages within your website, how it is all structured and a sitemap allows Google to thoroughly and intelligently navigate your website. This allows it to better understand it and, more importantly, index it correctly.

How to Create a Sitemap

With over 50% of the websites being used using WordPress as their content management system, the first way to create a sitemap that I will describe will be a great WordPress plugin which will help in a lot of different ways when it comes to making sure your website is Search Engine Friendly. That plugin is the All-in-One SEO Plugin.

It is a free plugin and designed to ensure your website is search engine ready and also creates a sitemap for you to submit to the search engines included.

If you are not running WordPress, don’t worry I will also share with you a way to create a XML sitemap for you to submit to Google too.

All-in-One SEO Plugin

Some will suggest Yoast, and there is nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, they both allow you to create a sitemap for you to submit to the search engines included. So, my only advice is do not install another sitemap plugin to create one.

Any WordPress owner will tell you that Site Speed is important, so why install a plugin if you have no need for it. It will only slow your website down.

You need an SEO plugin, that is a given so if you are going to install one – the two that are the most recommended are All-in-One SEO and Yoast. I will be showing you how to create a sitemap via the All-in-One SEO plugin, as that is the one that I use.

If you haven’t already installed the All-in-One SEO plugin, then you can search for it from the WordPress plugin directory and install it, then activate it.

If you are not sure around how to install a WordPress plugin, check out this helpful guide.

Once you have it installed and activated, it is really easy to generate a sitemap from the settings.

From the menu, select Features Manager.

Activate the XML Sitemap Feature

Related Post: How to Install a WordPress Plugin

Once it is activated, go back to your dashboard.

From your WordPress editor. You will see ‘All in One SEO in your left-hand menu. Hover over this, and you will see a number of options come up. You want to go to XML Sitemap and click on it.

You will notice that actually, you do not need to do anything else. Your sitemap is already ready to go and use, just from having the All-in-One SEO plugin activated on your website.

If you click on it, and you will see what information Google take from seeing your sitemap.

What you will also notice is that your sitemap ends up being just an addition to your normal website URL. It will look like http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.XML

Create an XML Sitemap

If you are not running WordPress, you can still create a sitemap for you to use, which will achieve the same thing. Just go to https://www.XML-sitemaps.com/ and get started by typing in your website URL (domain name).

You will have a sitemap ready to use shortly after.

Now that we have your sitemap ready to submit to Google, we can now submit it to Google. To do this, we need to use Google Search Console.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google (Google Search Console)

Google provides a suite of tools that are free and are great additions to your business. You can use them to understand a number of things including problems with your website that need resolving and information about the traffic that visits your website. The one tool is Google Analytics and other is Google Search Console. Installing Google Analytics is by far the easiest way to add your website to Google Search Console and I have written a guide for both Google Analytics and Google Search Console that will help massively with adding them both to your website.

How to Use Google Search Console Like a Pro!

Google Analytics Tutorial for Beginners

If you have not added your website to Google Search Console, you will find that you need to complete that step before you can submit a sitemap, as you need to prove that you own the website that you are adding a sitemap for. But it is actually quite easy.

First off, you need a google account. just follow this link to Google Search Console, and you can either log in or create a free account.

Go to Google Analytics and add your URL. You will get a tracking number, which you can use the All-in-One SEO plugin for again. In the general settings you can add the tracking number to the box for Google Analytics.

This means Google can find information about your website. You can then go to Google Search Console.

When you choose to add property (your website), choose the Google Analytics option and it will be added without you having to worry about adding a code to your website.

Once you have added your website to Google Search Console, you can go about adding your sitemap.

You will see an option on the left-hand side of Google Search Console for sitemaps. If you do not see the screen below, then you are still on the old Webmaster tools.

You can still submit it that way, but if you click the button stating ‘use new Search Console’ it will take you to the screen above and is much easier to submit your sitemap.

Click on sitemaps and it will allow you to type in the URL of your sitemap, which will mean you only need to add sitemap.XML and click submit. You will see the screen below once you have successfully added your sitemap to Search Console.

Google now knows where to find your sitemap and will regularly check back on it to see what you have been up to. From the screenshot above, you can see that I resubmitted my sitemap on December 15, 2018 and Google last read it today and it discovered 529 URLs.

How Often Should I Resubmit my Sitemap to Google?

To be honest, there is no real need to resubmit your sitemap once Google is aware of it unless you have made some major changes. I have seen some advice saying you need to resubmit it regularly, but there is no need.

If you have done a major overhaul of your links, structures or posts then it might would be worth it.

But for any changes, you are much better off using the URL Inspection tool instead. Say you create a video and want to add it to a post that is already ranked within Google, then you can use the URL inspection tool to tell Google you have made changes and want them to have a look. There is no need to resubmit your sitemap because of this.

This change would be picked up when Google crawls your sitemap again, but a new website would benefit from a URL inspection request.

Final Word

Google is really good at finding out new content, but adding a sitemap allows them to fully understand your website and the structure of it. Google Search Console is a fantastic tool for new website to help get it indexed and ranked within the search results.

If you would like to learn more about Google Search Console, then I have put together this guide on how to get the best out of Search Console and ensure you are using it correctly to your benefit when first getting started with a new website.

Submitting a sitemap will help you get onto Google’s index, but if you would like to really achieve something with your content, you need to learn how to get your content ranked properly. If you still have any questions or want any more help please write me a comment below and I will definitely come back to you as soon as.

How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Website using WordPress

November 6, 2019January 2, 2019 by John Crossley

If you are looking for how to build an affiliate marketing website using WordPress, then you have definitely found the right guide to help. Affiliate Marketing is a great way of earning money from an online business and WordPress is by far the easiest content management system to use.

When starting out there is plenty to learn, but you don’t want to have to learn how to use a complicated CMS too. In this guide, we will be covering what exactly is affiliate marketing, how WordPress can help you keep it simple, how you can actually have your own affiliate marketing WordPress website up and running in a few minutes. I will also share with you some advice around getting a great start to your affiliate marketing business with some expert help and support at hand for you to get the best start you can think of.

Let’s start by clarifying your understanding of what exactly is Affiliate Marketing…

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a great way for businesses to promote their products or services without having to invest in a huge marketing budget. You as an affiliate promote their products and services via your blog/website and receive a commission if one of your readers goes and buys that product or service.

Many affiliate marketers earn a full-time wage from this online business model and there is still a huge opportunity out there for people wanting to get started.

Whilst it is a simple premise, there is a little more to it than most people expect when they first get started, but I will delve into those a little later.

Let’s get into why WordPress is a great choice to get started with.

WordPress Helps Keep it Simple…

I like WordPress a lot, the main reason is it was so simple to learn how to work with and with a huge plugin library available to customise your website it really is the best content management system you could choose. Before these types of CMS, you had to learn coding and spend weeks or months building a website. Now you could get your very own WordPress website within minutes.

With over 50% of the websites out there choosing to run via WordPress, the numbers show how popular it is and that reason is the ease of use.

As a blogger, the more time spent on creating content will lead to future success, if you are having to learn how to code a website then you are losing out on that time and this might mean you do not succeed.

WordPress has some great theme designs giving your website the look you are after. With some great plugins you can also ensure you get exactly what you want from your website with ease.

Related Post: How to Become an Affiliate Marketer

WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

One thing I will point out at this point is, you do not want to go with a free WordPress.com website. The main reason is, you will not have overall control of the website, you will not be able to utilise any plugins and you will not have your own domain.

You want to make sure you get a WordPress.org website. This way you can have your own domain, this will be the foundation of your business.

Let’s show you how you can get your own website up and running in minutes.

Build Your Own Affiliate Marketing WordPress Website Within Minutes…

WordPress operates a one-button install and means that other than thinking about your domain name, you can have your website up and running in minutes.

Follow these steps below to get started.

Step 1 – Choose a Domain Name. The box below will let you know if it is available.

Step Two – Complete your free sign up with Site Rubix.

Step Three – Name your Website and Choose a Theme.

Step Four – Click Here to Build This Site!

That’s it, you will have your very own website up and running within seconds. But the awesome bonuses you receive from a SiteRubix account do not just stop there… but before we describe that, what else will it take you to become successful.

What Else Do You Need to Succeed?

Having your own website does not mean that you will automatically become successful… It is sometimes hard to hear but most affiliate marketers fail, and it is down to a simple thing… Unrealistic goals and timescales.

We are all in this to make money, that isn’t being unrealistic – but expecting it to happen overnight or after just a few weeks is where most fail.

Think about where you are at the moment. Are you looking to get out of your day job? Are you struggling with debt? Would you like some extra money to pay for holidays?

Whatever the reason you are exploring ways to earn money online, we have all been somewhere where we could do with the money now…

So, when we have put a lot of work into a website for a couple of weeks, we expect it to start paying out. It doesn’t work out like that.

Don’t get me wrong you are more than capable of achieving the success you want but expecting it to pay straightaway is where it goes wrong.

But think about the potential – You could be sitting there in a couple of year’s time earning a 6-figure salary from affiliate marketing. So, all the time you invest in the early stages you will get paid for, just not when you expect it to.

Back to what you need to succeed:

Constant Quality Content

If you can provide high-quality content, you will find it easier to succeed. Google is constantly looking for high-quality content to give to its users. You provide that content and you will be a step closer to page one rankings. Page one is where you want to be, otherwise your chances of getting any traffic is reduced dramatically.

Remember to Help, Not Sell

One of the things that affiliate marketers get wrong is just selling a product to people. But a page that is too ‘salesy’ without answering the specific question that the person was after will just turn them off.

Every time someone hits your website you should be answering the questions they asked. Not everyone is in a ‘buying’ mood, they might be just researching a topic, might be wary after finding a post that did not help them at all.

One of the key things I have learned is helping people will earn you more than selling to people. But it is a common mistake affiliate marketer make.

Keep Going…Even When it Feels Tough

One of the hardest things to do is to create content, without it getting you any results in the initial stages. Writing article after article without any traffic can be quite down heartening. Without engagement on your site it feels like nobody is listening to your voice or opinions. It is like having a conversation just with yourself, it can get hard to keep it going.

But you have to push through this stage to realise your potential. Once you start getting real traffic and engagement you will be kept really busy and will require a lot of time to manage your business – but as you are hopefully earning money at this point it becomes easier.

You have to keep going, push through… But one thing I want to offer to you is my help and support during those initial stages.

If you followed the steps above and created your very own affiliate marketing website using WordPress, you do not only gain a free website… but you also gain access to me as your personal guide and some expert help and support via Wealthy Affiliate!

Get Expert Help & Support Every Step of the Way!

I would not have been able to keep going if I had not received the same help and support, I am offering to you. A free Starter Membership with Wealthy Affiliate offers you 2 free websites, training on how to get your affiliate marketing website up to a great running start but you also gain access to a community of like-minded affiliate marketers all working on their own affiliate marketing business. You also gain access to 2 industry experts in the owners of Wealthy Affiliate. Kyle & Carson are the owners and are fully engaged with helping anyone willing to put the time and effort into getting their affiliate marketing business up and running and seeing it turn into a profitable online business.

That help is available to you. I will also always be there to give you a helping hand if you ever get stuck, or you can ask the ever-growing community where an answer to your question can be answered within minutes.

Don’t feel like you are alone in those initial stages, feel like you are working alongside people and a community who cares and will provide some vital support until you reach those traffic levels.

I always think that you should be fully informed to be able to make a decision, so here is a link to my full Wealthy Affiliate review. That way you can fully understand what is on offer with a Wealthy Affiliate account.

Hopefully now you know how to build an affiliate marketing website using WordPress, but I also hope to think that you may actually know a little more about how to make that affiliate marketing website successful.

If you have any questions or want to share any experiences that are relevant, please write them in the comments below and I will definitely respond to you as soon as I can.

What is ShareASale About? A ShareASale Review

September 8, 2021December 31, 2018 by John Crossley

Welcome to our ShareASale Review!

If you have been looking into some affiliate networks to use within your affiliate marketing business, then you might ask yourself what is ShareASale about?

Being an affiliate marketing network for quite a while, it has plenty to offer but is it worth your precious time?

In this review I have gone through everything that a potential affiliate partner would be asking themselves before joining.

How to Use Google Search Console like a Pro!

November 6, 2019December 28, 2018 by John Crossley

Google webmaster tools has been a key tool for website owners for years, but it has always been a little complicated to understand. Now, they have released a newer version called Google Search Console. Hands down, it is much easier to navigate and understand and it means website owners can really understand where their website is ranking, be able to submit your posts to get ranked and also see where the opportunities lie. In this post we will be going through exactly how to use google search console and throw in a few tips too.

Let’s start with how to add google search console to your website.

How to Add Google Search Console to Your Website

The first thing you will need is a google account. You will require this to be able to sign into Google Search Console and Google Analytics and as both are essential to your website and business, it is important you get set up now.

From your search engine, search for google search console and follow the link. For ease it is also here.

When you click Start Now, you will be asked to either sign in or log into a google account.

Now whilst the new Search Console is a great platform, you will still require the old version to be able to add a property. In webmaster tools or search console, your website will be referred to as ‘a property’.

In the old version, you will see a screen similar to the one below, but you will not have any properties yet.

You will want to click the red button ‘Add a Property’. Then you will want to add your website URL to the box that has appeared.

Make sure the box is selected as Website and you use the full URL for your website. Once you have added your new property (website).

After you have completed this step, you will need to verify that you own the property you are going to add to Google Search Console.

You will see at this point there are two tabs in your options. The recommended method is uploading a html file into your website. But that is a little more complicated, unless you know what you are doing so at this point, I would not suggest it.

If you have already set up Google Analytics, then that is the easiest way as you will just need to select it and click verify (Make sure you select you are not a robot). AS your google account already has been set up with Google Analytics, then it will be that easy.

If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics, then I suggest you do set this up first and here is a guide I created for doing just that.

If you do not want to set up Google Analytics yet, let’s explore the other ways to verify your website ownership.

The best alternative to going through Google Analytics is to add a html tag to the header of your WordPress website.

Select this option and it will display a code to add. Make sure you select all of the code, before you get ready to copy and paste it into the header of your website.

Then you can go to your WordPress editor, select appearance and editor.

From the right-hand side menu, you need to select header. The verification meta tag must be within the section of the page. Here is the guide that Google provide to help with this.

I would say at this point, I would not suggest this method and here is why. Any time that you change your website theme, or your theme has an update, it will remove this code and you will need to add it again.

You will be missing out on a lot of useful information if you do not add Google Analytics, so why not add them both at the same time. It will take you a few minutes to add Google Analytics to your website, and then another couple of minutes to add the Google Search Console.

Once you have completed these steps, you know that Google is aware of your website and you can start to use the tools and reports that Google provides you to get better results for your website.

You will also be able to switch between the old and the new version of Search Console at any time, depending on what you want to achieve, but the first thing you will want to do is submit a sitemap for your website, so Google can explore your website regularly.

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google Search Console

The new way to submit a sitemap to Google Search Console is much easier, so we will go through that method now. If you are still in the old version, press the blue button ‘Use new Search Console’.

You will see the following screen when you are in the new version. It might look a little blank at the moment, but it will look similar to this. This is the Overview report, which we will describe shortly – but back to submitting a sitemap. From the left-hand menu, select sitemaps.

IN the image, you will see that I have already submitted a sitemap. All you will want to do is add the URL of where your sitemap is. If you are using the All-in-One SEO plugin, then it will be simply sitemap.xml to the end of your website URL.

Once you have typed it in, click submit. You will then see it displayed underneath, like mine is.

In my example, it shows that I last submitted it on the 15th December, Google last read it on the 25th December. It was successful and they discovered 483 URLS or links.

Whilst you don’t need to do anything more with your sitemap after this, I do suggest that if you make a lot of changes to your posts, links or website. you come back and resubmit your sitemap using the method we just went through.

The next step that I suggest you take advantage of is the cool tool called ‘URL Inspection’.

URL Inspection – The new Fetch as Google

You can use this tool to actually request Google to search for it and add it to their search results. Any time you create a new post or edit an existing post, come back to this tool to tell Google about it. Many would still refer to this as ‘fetch as google’.

You can get to it via 2 ways. From the menu on the left, or just copy and pasting your URL to the search bar at the top.

If you inspect a URL that is already on Google, then you will see the image below:

It shows that it has already been indexed into the search results on Google. But if you have gone and added any additional content to that post, say a video, then come back and see how it says, ‘Page Changed?’ – just click request indexing.

This will take a couple of minutes to do. I have found that it doesn’t always work first time, but just try again a few minutes later.

It also tells you whether there are any issues with the coverage and AMP version, which we will cover in the report’s descriptions.

You don’t have to do this, as Google is very good at finding new content. But I found by doing this every post when I first started doing this website, it got ranked quicker and now I don’t always need to do it, as Google is keeping an eye out for it. I posted an article yesterday and didn’t submit it and yet it is already ranked in Google. I posted it at 18.29 and Google crawled the post at 20.52. Not bad, eh?

The more content you create, the more Google will want to check out your sitemap.

The Amp report is one to keep an eye out for. Most searches online are now coming from a smart phone, so Google actually searches for mobile friendly websites and potential ranks them better than non-mobile friendly websites.

For your URL, it will not be indexed yet, so you will see the image below:

Just select, request indexing. I would do this on your main home-page, and any posts that you have already written.

A couple of points to consider, when you submit your URL and it has been added to the index queue, do not keep doing it. It will not speed up the process, so is a waste of time. Once it has been added you will see the box below.

Overview Report

Once you have submitted your sitemap and started to get some date, your main Overview page will give you an overview of your website performance, coverage issues and enhancement information.

Performance Report

Your Performance Report gives you an insight into how you are faring with the audience out there. The pre-sets are set at last 3 months, but you can change the timeframes that the data shows you.

Total Clicks – How many clicks you have had from the search results

Total Impressions – This shows you how many times your link has been seen by someone searching for that keyword

Average CTR – the percentage click through from those impressions

Average Position – Is your average position in the search results.

The next table down displays some more specific data. You have a number of different ways of seeing the data. But if you are just starting out, I would focus on the pages tab.

Select the pages tab in the bottom table and select average position in the top table.

This will add the position column to the bottom table and mean you can see what position you are ranking for with your post.

Just click the boxes in the top table, so they are all coloured. This will display that data in the table below.

If you click the position column, it will sort high to low or low to high. Can give you an insight into your rankings.

When your website is relatively new, you aren’t really getting the traffic to accurately decipher the information but it is a good to know where you are ranking, as the higher you rank for a keyword the better your chances of getting traffic.

Coverage Report

The coverage report tells you if you have issues with your website. But I wouldn’t worry too much about some of the errors that come up. If you select a URL to not be indexed by Google (your privacy policy for example), then it will show as an error. But you know that.

You will also see that some affiliate links will appear in the excluded section, again you will see I have a high number, but as this is by link and not post it does seem high. But it isn’t really a problem. So, I do take the coverage page with a pinch of salt to a degree.

If you do see errors, you can see the detail in the bottom table and follow the correct action depending on what the error is.

Error – Pages that couldn’t be indexed

Valid with Warnings – Is a valid page, but it has issues you need to deal with

Valid – Pages that have been indexed

Excluded – These pages were intentionally not indexed.

Mobile Usability Report

The mobile usability report is useful to understand how mobile friendly your website is, it will also detail any errors that you need to resolve to avoid anyone getting to your site and finding a problem.

Error – This is a critical error in the structured data

Valid – Have no errors.

AMP Report

Get to see if there are any AMP errors within your website. Amp was launched as a way of having a condensed mobile friendly version of your website running for ease of use. If you are running an AMP plugin, then this report will let you know if you have any issues to fix.

Error – This is a critical error in the structured data

Valid with Warnings – Are valid, but are missing some data

Valid – have no errors.

Links Report

Who is linking to your website, which pages are linking to each other? At the end of the day, Google loves you linking to other pages or posts on your website. My homepage shows links of 609, yet there are no even than many pages on my website. Internal and external links are important, and you can get an insight into the information on this tab.

Conclusion – Google Search Console

Getting ranked onto the first page of Google is where any aspiring website owner wants to be. They hold the most users and getting to rank number one is the pinnacle and often the trigger for getting a load of traffic.

But if you do not use google search console or google analytics, how do you know how you are ranking or even tell google about your website.

Submit your sitemap to Google, use the URL inspection to get your posts ranked quicker. Check out any errors and see whether they require you to do something about it and watch your rankings.

You can also identify some keyword opportunities within the search results. You will soon notice that you are ranking for keywords that you were not targeting and so it could be an chance to explore that keyword in detail with a post.

If you are relatively new, I wouldn’t also advise that you do not spend a lot of time on it… I say the same for Analytics.

Until you are getting a real chunk of traffic, then the data can be misleading, and you end up wasting your time reviewing it. As a new website owner, your focus should be on creating content. Once you are getting thousands of visits to your website, then it is worth checking it out regularly. Otherwise, use the URL inspection toll every time you create a post and then leave and work on the next post.

Check it monthly, like you should with Analytics and hopefully you will see an upward trend.
Hopefully now you have a grasp of how to use Google Search Console.

If you still have any questions, then please write them in the comments below and I will get back to you as soon as I can. John

What is the Best Affiliate Marketing Program for Beginners?

November 6, 2019December 27, 2018 by John Crossley

Your chosen niche will ultimately determine what is the best affiliate marketing program for beginners and for you. But knowing what to look for and the differences will be a major factor in whether it is the right affiliate program for you. Relevance and Quality will be some things that you are looking for when deciding.

Before we delve into the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners, let’s just cover what exactly is affiliate marketing and also how it differs from referral marketing.

What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing?

The simplest way I can describe affiliate marketing is that it is where you (an affiliate) receive a commission for introducing a buyer to a product or service. Affiliate marketing is quite a broad statement as it can also include receiving a commission for referring someone to signing up to a program, for example a training platform.

Let’s use an example for the product side. You have a niche focusing on bean coffee machines. You have done the hard work and built up your audience and you have signed up to a retailer (Amazon, for example) selling the coffee machines that you are writing reviews and articles about.

Your audience decide they want to purchase said coffee machine after reading your review and follow your link to the retailer. If they decide to purchase that coffee machine, you receive a percentage commission on the sale. That is exactly how affiliate marketing works.

Referral Marketing works the same way, let me us Swagbucks as an example.

Swagbucks is a website where you can earn a little money from completing surveys, watching online videos. That sort of thing. If you were to refer someone to join up with Swagbucks, you get a reward. In this instance it is SB points, that when you reach a certain amount you can cash out for giftcards, etc.

In essence, they are both affiliate marketing – but the rewards are typically where you see the difference.

Referral Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing

Some will describe both as affiliate marketing, and they would be right. But I do like to differentiate the two, as understanding both of them in the right way will end up earning you more conversions.

If you solely worked on just products and services in your niche, you are missing out on a big chunk of potential sales. If you are in the making money online niche, you might not consider referring someone to survey sites as worth your time – but everyone is different, and these survey sites would not be around if people were not signing up. Whilst most of us are looking for ways to replace the job. Some are quite content with relieving boredom and earning a few extra pounds completing a survey.

Another one, I never consider really was a website like Udemy.com. You can actually become an affiliate with promote training lessons.

Whatever your niche, it is worthwhile checking out what courses they have to offer and see whether it fits with your chosen niche.

Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners

Before I share with you some beginner friendly affiliate marketing programs, I want to just take a moment to mention relevance and quality. Remember that anyone who visits your website is looking for help and guidance, and they will be put off by low quality products or stuff that isn’t even relevant to what they were looking for.

The reason I say this is, I have seen a number of affiliate marketers choosing to promote something because it has a high commission rate. But they aren’t making any conversions. I would rather have a relevant product earning 4% commission on my website and it get conversions, than a product with a 70% commission rate that doesn’t get any sales and has nothing to do with my audience.

That is why we choose a niche, and not start too broad. We need to become an authority in that niche and keep it fully on topic to earn the trust of anyone reading our blog. Otherwise it is game over.

That is why I am going to suggest when first starting out you start with affiliate programs that fit in with your brand, will be relevant to your audience and have products or services you yourself would use. You cannot promote something just because of the commission rate, you need to promote something that you believe in.

Affiliate Programs or Networks to Try

When you start researching into affiliate programs you will soon see that there 2 places to try. One is an affiliate network, this is where they have teamed up with a number of sellers to offer their affiliate program. Instead of signing up with 10 different affiliate programs, you just have one log-in to worry about. Share a Sale or Awin would be an example of this.

An affiliate program is one that is offered by an individual seller, Amazon for example.

If you are targeting a niche with a product base, then you really shouldn’t overlook Amazon or eBay. The Amazon Associates or eBay Partner affiliate programs are free to join and have an endless number of products or services that you can search through.

It also becomes an awesome way of researching your niche. I bet there will be more products on offer than you might think and will give you more ideas on what to write about and promote.

eBay is quite easy to work with and it is no longer just about second-hand merchandise. Gem’s wedding stationary business is mainly geared through eBay, so it will definitely be one to look at.

Amazon – it depends on where you are and where you are promoting products. Amazon.com, the worldwide website needs two qualifying sales within 6 months to stay an active affiliate. You can re-register straight away, but it is a bit of a faff. Personally, I would wait until you are starting to see traffic to your website. Once you start getting people regularly hitting your website, then I would sign up.

The other way you can see what affiliate programs are out there is using Google.

Just type your niche + affiliate programs. So, back to the bean coffee machine niche idea, here is what came up when I searched that + affiliate programs.

Signing up with smaller companies, sometimes yields better results and higher commissions. They are also not always as picky. There are affiliate programs out there that will not accept you until you are hitting a certain level of traffic, so it is always worthwhile researching and reading as much about the affiliate programs as you can.

Don’t be afraid to send an email and ask questions, if the answer isn’t forthcoming.

If you are targeting the ‘make money online’ niche, then the first thing I would say is it is a crowded market and will take a lot of hard work and effort to master it.

But for starters, Click Bank is a good affiliate network to begin with. But, as for the quality statement, I personally use it to look out for low-quality products to warn people about. You will always find products that promise the earth, seem quite scammy and you know why? It is normally because they are.

We need to warn people about the bad products, just as much as the good products.

Affiliate Networks:

Awin
Amazon Associates
eBay Partners
CJ by Conversant
Clickbank
Rakuten
MoreNiche.com

These are the top affiliate networks out there and I would recommend you check them out.

Want to Find Success with Affiliate Marketing?

Starting out in Affiliate Marketing requires a lot of time and focus. But you also need to ensure your efforts are going into the right actions to ensure long term success.

There is more to signing up to an affiliate program, promoting a few products and then hoping that it ends up earning you a ton of money.

I have found there are a few things that you need to remain focused during those difficult first few months when you are not seeing any reward (yet!).

The Right Education for Affiliate Marketing Success

There is so much to learn when it comes to affiliate marketing and not all of it is actually to do with affiliate marketing. You are starting an online business, so there are elements that you will need to master on top of learning affiliate marketing.

Website Design
Search Engine Optimisation
Getting Traffic to Your Website
Creating Content that Converts

If you stick with my suggestion you will get a comprehensive guide to achieving success with your online business within affiliate marketing

Expert Help & Support On Hand Anytime

Starting an online business can seem really lonely, and if you are ever stuck you tend to only have a google search to help… That doesn’t always help, and I prefer a two-way conversation with some real experts in online business. If I am ever stuck (we all get stuck at some point) I just reach out to my fellow members on Wealthy Affiliate. Wealthy Affiliate offers outstanding training, expert help and support and some awesome tools to help make sure your online affiliate marketing business gets started the right way and scale it to the point where you are really seeing success with it.

Getting the right training, right support and using awesome tools to achieve it correctly, Wealthy Affiliate is the right start for a new affiliate marketer.

When I first stumbled onto the concept of affiliate marketing, the whole landscape seemed alien to me. Starting a website, writing articles, even applying for affiliate programs or finding them. Without Wealthy Affiliate’s training and support, I would not be where I am today.

So if you are still looking at making your affiliate marketing business a reality, but still not 100% sure what you are doing with it. I would highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate. With a free starter membership, you can fully experience the platform, the training, the support and even get 2 free websites included. No need to enter any credit card details and no catch. If you find that it is not what you are looking for, then just log out and good luck to you on your affiliate marketing business.

Here is my full Wealthy Affiliate review, so you can see exactly what it is all about. If you would like to try a free starter membership with Wealthy Affiliate to make up your own mind, then you can join for free here.

Affiliate Marketing is a fantastic way of starting a home-based business and can be a lot of fun when it is in a niche that you are already interested in. But I have found that help and support is really something that you cannot do without. Gem & I love helping new people succeed, but with the training, websites, tools and support that Wealthy Affiliate offer and some guidance from us included then you will soon find that you do not need to search for answers using google that can end up wasting you a lot of time. Get an instant answer from people who know within minutes at Wealthy Affiliate.

Getting the right affiliate marketing program for your niche will definitely depend on what your niche is and the opportunities that lie within that niche. Hopefully you now know how to search for and find affiliate programs in your niche and also how relevance and the quality of your chosen products and services will matter loads.

If you have any questions or would like to share any hints and tips on how to find the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners, then please leave them in the comments below. I will definitely come back to your as soon as I can and good luck in your search.

Google Analytics Tutorial for Beginners

November 6, 2019December 22, 2018 by John Crossley

Being able to convert sales is a key element to your success online, but if you do not know how your audience is interacting with your website then how do you move forward in your online business.

Google provides a suite of free tools to help you with your website and to better understand your audience and we are going to provide you some valuable information on Google Analytics today.

What Does Google Analytics Give You?

At first, it might seem that Google Analytics only shows you how many visitors you have had to your website… But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Google actually gathers a lot of information on anyone using their search engine, and website owners gain access to certain elements that you can use to help target your campaigns better.

Let’s use an example, one of the reports will actually tell you how long people are staying on your website or a specific page. If no one is staying on one of your articles. That tells you a lot, it is putting people off and you need to fix it.

I also noticed on another report that most of my traffic was coming from the US & Canada, rather than the UK. That allowed me to think about the currency I used, I kept going on about British Pounds (because that is where we live) but to improve the relevance of the post, I started using US Dollars. Breaking down the information is a great thing for a website owner.

I will go into it a little more in detail later, but I would also advise any new website owner to not spend too much time on Google Analytics. This is a great powerful tool to help with your business, but until you are starting to get medium levels of traffic – there is no real point in losing sleep over any metrics that are displayed.

But back to what does it give you.

Valuable insights in the behaviours of your audience
A way of capturing how many conversions you achieve.
Which campaigns are working, and which campaigns are not?
Demographics of your audience
How you acquire your visitors

Before we delve too deeply into any of the reports you gain access to, let’s start with how to set up Google Analytics. Most websites are running on the WordPress content management system, so we will be focusing on that route today.

How to Set up Google Analytics on your WordPress Blog

The first thing you will need to use any of Google’s suite of website tools is a google account. You can sign up here.

Once signed in, you will need to create a new property. Enter the name of your website, the URL (website address), industry and reporting time zone. This will give you your tracking ID.

You might want to check out this awesome training from the guys at Wealthy Affiliate, see it here.

This tracking ID is what you will use to link your website to Google Analytics.

Your tracking ID will look something like – UA-111111111-1.

You will then need to sign into your WordPress Back office to link your website.

The easiest way to link the two accounts is by using the All-in-One SEO Plugin. Click on the plugin general settings and scroll down to the Google box. You will see a box where you can enter your Google Analytics tracking ID.

Click save and you are good to go.

The alternative to this is the copy the tracking code (different to the short tracking ID). This will need to be pasted in your header.php file in your WordPress editor.

That is why I prefer the All-in-One SEO plugin, it makes it so much easier and works towards making your website search engine friendly anyway.

Breaking Down the Reports

For experienced users, there are a lot of features that Google Analytics offers that we will not be covering in this tutorial today. We want to focus on the 4 main reports that a new blog or website owner would find interesting when they are starting to gain traction and see traffic levels start to increase.

When you are signed in and set up with your website, when you log in you will see this screen first off. Scrolling down will review a number of different metrics. IN the middle, it gives you an insight into your last 7 days. We will go through the metrics shortly. We are going to break down the reports available from the left-hand menu, starting with the audience tab.

Audience Report

The audience tab is where you find out loads of interesting information about your audience.

At first, you get an idea of what they are doing when they hit your website. Some of the metrics are quite obvious, but there are a couple where it may not:

User: Users who have started at least one session during the date range

New Users: The number of first-time users during the date range

Sessions: Total number of sessions within the date range.

No. of Sessions per User: The average number of sessions per user

Page Views: The total number of pages viewed

Pages/Sessions: Average number of pages viewed per session

Avg. Session Length: The average length of a session

Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page sessions in which there was no interaction.

The bounce rate is the one that confuses many people. It will become more prevalent when you have reached a good traffic level, but if they are not interacting with any of your call to actions or going to another page on your website – it will show in the bounce rate.

There are a number of different levels to the audience tab to help you break this down further. Starting out, I wouldn’t worry too much about any of them. But there are tons of ways of breaking down the demographics to the visitors to your website.

Acquisition Report

How do people come to your website? This report helps you identify which channels are working for you and which ones are not.

Social – Which social media channel is working best for you? Well, this report will let you know. Most of my current traffic comes from Facebook.
Direct Traffic – The number of people who landed onto your website directly. This is the difficult one to grasp, because you don’t really find out how they got to your website. It wasn’t due to a search, or a link from another website. First ideas might be they saved your website as a bookmark, or Instagram is surprisingly not included in the social media searches.
Referral – The traffic that was referred from another website.
Search Overview & Organic Search – This is where all your hard work on SEO routes comes to fruit. This will show you how many people have come to you via a Google search.

If we use an example as to explain how someone may show up. If you have a post that has been shared on social media and someone clicks on that link and hits your website, it will show in the social metrics. But if that same person comes back later on directly to that post – it will show as a direct referral.

If someone searches in google, and your website comes up in the search results and they click on your link, it will show as an Organic Search.

If one of your posts has been included in a round-up post on another website and someone clicks on that link, you will see a referral figure.

Behaviour Report

The behaviour report gives you more detail on individual pages/posts and what your audience is actually doing.

How long are they spending on your website, are they leaving straight away?

There are a number of features included, that can help you track this behaviour too.

Again, this is really for when you are more established, but is a useful feature for tweaking your campaigns.

Real Time

Real time allows you check out what people are doing live. If someone is on your website whilst you are active in Google Analytics, you can see what they are doing. Which page they are on, if they change to another page. Something I find intriguing as well is, you can actually see where they are live on the map.

It does seem a little strange, but I loved the fact when I saw my first live user. See screenshot below, this was me logging in on my phone to show you what you might see.

There is a ton more detail and reports included in Google Analytics, and I still haven’t used everything included. There is some information you need to check on, but as a new user with a new website, there is too much info in a way.

You are best off, checking the basics for now and here is why.

How Often Should you be Checking Google Analytics?

Getting your website set up with Google Analytics is important, don’t get me wrong but until you get a decent amount of traffic, then it is pointless spending too much time on it.

A new website will not really gain much traction with the search engines until you have been established 3 months. It can then take time to build up traffic to a meaningful point. So, until you get to this point, it is point checking Analytics more often than once a month.

The key reason, it takes you away from the important stuff – as in writing more content for your website.

At first, it might seem interesting to check in and see if you have any real-time customers, but most likely you will only see yourself. Focus on the key ingredients to gaining traffic:

Writing Awesome Useful Content
Making sure your SEO techniques are set up properly
Share it on Social Media
Write more content

Once you have gained a step up in the SEO world and getting regular traffic from the search engines, that is the point where you get involved more in the analytics and learning how to fully utilise it.

This website is only about 3 months old, I check it maybe once or twice a month. That’s it. There is no real point wasting my time, I focus on writing more content and helping others, than I do on Analytics.

Conclusion

Google Analytics gives you a great insight into what your audience is doing, whether you own an e-commerce business, are a blogger using affiliate marketing or are a drop shipper it can and will be a great tool to use.

But I still think we spend too much time on it, for a new website owner Google Search Console is probably more helpful and I will include a guide on that tool soon.

I would just say that spending too much time on it will affect your business, there will be a time when you need to invest some time into it. But if you are new, then it is not now.

I have only one ask, promise me you will ask me any questions you may have in the comments below.
We are here to help anyone who wants to succeed online.

How to Sell My Art Online – The Right Way!

November 6, 2019December 20, 2018 by John Crossley

Hi, we are John & Gemma

We am going to be totally honest with you… We don’t know a lot about creating or selling Art.

But, what we do know is how to Sell Stuff Online. I have been doing it for a few years now and have been helping people create and grow their own businesses online.

So, I do know a few things that will totally help you and benefit you sell your art online.

Art is Such an Easy Sell Online…

It is a lot easier to target and reach the right audience online for selling your artwork rather than have an expensive art studio. Let’s be honest, most visitors to an art studio are not in a buying frame of mind. They just want to browse. It is a lot more difficult to close a deal in the offline art world.

What if you could cut out the middle man (art studio) and connect straight to an ENGAGED audience that already has their credit card out, are looking to buy and are ready to invest in your art?

That is the beauty of having an online business, it presents you with an opportunity to do just that and I can help you get started and more importantly, show you how!

OK, you might ask “Guys, how are you going to do all this?”

You have come to this page for one reason – to achieve the right exposure to your artwork and you want to earn money from it, right?

We cannot sell your art for you, but what I can do is offer you 3 simple steps to achieve this exposure and offer some insights into how YOU can sell your own art online!

3 Simple Steps to Sell Your Art Online

These are 3 simple steps that can create your own online art studio with a platform to sell your own art!

Step One: Give Your Artwork a Home (It starts with a website)

The first step is the fact that you will need your own website and blog. This will become a canvas for not only your artwork, but also allow you to engage with any potential customer. An interactive studio with a reach across the world.

You can engage people in your art, showcase your art, talk about your art and the overall art industry in general.

Doing all this will lead you to becoming an authority online, which will lead to greater sales.

You can also obviously sell your art through that website!

Nowadays, you can actually get a website for free through services such as SiteRubix. You could actually have your very own website up and running in a matter of minutes and start doing the work to sell your art.

Have you got an idea already for your initial website???

You can get started with your website NOW and get it up and running for free. It will be a fully functional website. But the bonus is that it gives you access to Wealthy Affiliate. A community that will train you and help you get your art business up and running and targeting success.

Use the tool below, and you will be able to start on your website straightaway. Type in a domain name to see if it is available

Or you can go directly to the SiteRubix website and start building your awesome art website.

Step Two: Get Your Art Exposure (Getting Traffic to Your Website)

Even if you have the best art in the world, without anyone seeing it how can you hope to sell it?

The most important factor to an online business is getting the traffic you need to make sales. That is why it is really important you learn how to get traffic to your website in the online world.

Did you know there are close to 4 billion people online?

Just think, that is a lot of people and it shows the type of potential you have in the online world. Your art can receive some awesome exposure online and get exposure like no art studio could ever offer you.

Your own website will be a foundation for selling, and your traffic is going to your audience that buys your artwork!

Where do you get this training? If you took the opportunity to create a website as part of step one, then you already have access to Wealthy Affiliate – This is where you get this training included with your new website.

If you already have a website but want to benefit from training that will get you the traffic you need (this is totally free to get going), then you can sign up directly from the Wealthy Affiliate Website.

Step Three: Keeping Your Art Business Going (With Expert Help)

Gain access to thousands of experts within the online world. On hand at any time to support you every step of the way. Get all of your questions answered and support you to getting that all-important traffic to your art, so it sells.

Got Any Questions About Selling Your Art?

Then, please promise us one thing… do not hesitate in asking us any questions in the comments below.

Gem and I are here to help you out and get you started on an awesome journey to creating a profitable and successful online campaign to sell your art online.

We will definitely come back to you with an answer, as soon as we can.

We look forward to helping you achieve every success you deserve with selling your art online.

John & Gem

Owners of this website & Your Personal Guides to Online Success

How Can I Earn Extra Money in the UK?

November 6, 2019December 18, 2018 by John Crossley

There are a number of different options out there to earn extra money online, but what I don’t want to do is give you the usual answers that you already expect and, quite frankly don’t want to hear. There are obviously the options of a part-time retail job or even completing surveys, but these do not really earn you a lot of money or even fit in with your current job and family life. What I have come up with is a couple of options where you can work from home or your laptop on and earn money and possibly lead to some decent earning potential for you too.

Watch Outs When Searching Online

Before I get into these suggestions, I want to call out something that you will always find when you start looking for ways to earn money online. The sheer number of scams out there. They promise that you will earn thousands overnight, without having to put in any work – you just need to hand over some credit card details.

Think about it, you are looking for ways to earn extra money because of your financial situation. These fake programs are promoting on the sole premise that you need more money, and their program will (not) give you that. Be very mindful making decisions when you have a need for something. It can often lead to us making poor decisions.

I made such a decision a few years ago and got hooked by a program stating that I could be a binary options millionaire with this program working on auto-pilot. Needless to say, I am still waiting…

The reasons I say this is, you will be hoping to find a way of earning extra money online which doesn’t require much time and effort – but these products that promise quick earnings are not real. The only way you can earn money online is with some time and effort. But the advantages are you can do that work and effort from anywhere. I started putting aside an hour each evening after my son had gone to bed, Then I tried to incorporate more time as I got more accomplished at it. The more I spent, the easier it was to a point where I was earning money online without having to get a part-time job or complete surveys where you didn’t really earn much from.

Related Post: How to Avoid Affiliate Marketing Scams

Back on point, I have 2 options that would earn you money online and either option is good depending on it being right for you.

Freelancing – Using Your Skills for Generating Money

There are websites out there, such as Fiverr where you can offer your services and earn money from those services. You might think at this point, you have nothing to offer. But in my opinion, that isn’t the case. Website owners are constantly looking at ways of outsourcing work. You could be great at graphic design, or simply like writing and can writing effective copy. You might be quite happy, taking on the role of social media manager for their business. If you are any good at accounting, this is another way of earning money online.

There are a multitude of opportunities out there for you to explore and quite frankly, earn money from.

It is also a quicker route to earning money online, as you can sign up with a site like Fiverr today and start offering your services and getting hired. To fully see the opportunities, I recommend you read my Fiverr Review. You will get a full insight into the benefits, but also the concerns with taking the freelancing route.

Freelancing gives you the freedom to work as and when you need, it also means you are not tied down to any one business. But that can also be a drawback, as it is not always regular work.

But I know of many freelancers who are earning decent money from it. It works for them, and those that do not want to venture down my other suggestion.

Build Your Own Online Business with Affiliate Marketing

I live in the UK, and around 3 years ago, I didn’t even have a clue of what Affiliate Marketing was and how I could earn money from home with it. After looking back, I wish I could have started with it sooner. This may not sound like everyone’s cup of tea… and it isn’t. But for the right type of person, this can actually be more than just some extra money on the side – but could lead to a very lucrative business model that means it is your only income.

Let’s start with explaining what Affiliate Marketing is…

What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing?

To show you how genuine this business model is, let’s start with a brand you would know that has used Affiliate Marketing since its inception. Amazon. Many of us use Amazon, but when they first started out, they were just selling books.

They didn’t have a large marketing campaign budget, so they gave a reward to someone if they introduced a buyer to a book. A percentage of the sale went to whomever referred them. That is basically how affiliate marketing started and how it still works today. But now Amazon has a huge marketplace to utilise that same model they started with.

Let’s use an example. An Affiliate Marketer has a blog on Coffee. A lot of people are constantly looking for the best coffee machines, how to use these machines and want help with the best coffee beans around. They build a website that shows them as an authority in coffee. They also include reviews on these coffee machines, and accessories, beans etc.

We land on that website looking for the best coffee machine to use at home, I like the look of his review and decide to click on his link to the marketplace (in this example, Amazon). I know and trust amazon and decide to buy that coffee machine for £100. That website owner has just earned 4% commission on that sale. four quid.

Might not sound like much, but if that website gets thousands of visitors a day to their website and 100 people decide to buy that same coffee machine, like I did. Then that becomes £400. a thousand buyers and that is £4,000.

That is how simple the premise of Affiliate Marketing is. Any niche, anything that you have an interest in can become a lucrative affiliate marketing business model.

How Affiliate Marketing Can Earn You Extra Money

The reason I say it can earn you extra money is down to the timescales it has to become a full-time income. It requires a lot of time and effort to build an online business that can fully support a family without a normal job. Some niches are more competitive, and it can take longer, and there is also a lot to learn.

But for the right people, it can be the start of something absolutely awesome. Many new affiliate marketers actually utilise the freelancing option whilst building up their business to the point where they are earning enough to give up the day job and be able to spend more time on their online business. Scaling it to the point where it can truly be something great.

The Advantages of Starting an Affiliate Marketing Business

There are a number of benefits to starting this type of business, the main one being you can do it from anywhere (as long as you have Wifi).

But what you also soon realise is that you can choose a niche where you have an interest in it. There is no point chasing a subject, just because it looks profitable as you have to invest a lot of time into that niche and if you know nothing about it or don’t really like it – it will tell in both your content and the fact you will find it hard to stay motivated working on it.

Gem, my wife is really crafty and has launched her own wedding stationary business. But by utilising affiliate marketing and drop shipping into our business model, we have made a business that is sustainable and earns a decent profit margin each year and because she loves it, we will continue to grow it past year one.

We love helping other people, so we launched this website to help others find their own financial freedom.

There is a common theme when it comes to successful affiliate marketers – they want to help people, rather than sell to people.

Choosing a Niche that you love or have a passion around makes this a business you want to work on. If you create an article that starts converting well, that article could remain profitable for years to come. Affiliate Marketing is considered a passive income stream, you need to do all the hard work at the beginning, but when it starts turning a profit it can carry on for years to come.

What Do I Need to Know Before I Consider Affiliate Marketing?

There are obviously things you need to consider before getting started. Affiliate Marketing has helped many people leave their day job behind and some are earning a lot of money from it. But then there are others that walk away saying it doesn’t work. Why?

Well, the main reason is they had unrealistic expectations. These scammy products lead us to a false belief that we can earn money overnight using the internet. To an extent you can.

If you complete a survey on Swagbucks or Prolific Surveys, after a couple of surveys you will have earned £5.

But they promise you thousands of pounds with little effort…

When I first started affiliate marketing, I had a full-time job with a six-year-old vying for my attention too. So, finding time to put effort into my online business was hard. I was trying to learn everything I needed to learn and put it into practice.

But I kept in mind, that I was building this business to spend more time with my family, but I was realistic that this would not happen even within a couple of weeks.

I see many get started and work hard for a few weeks, then wonder why it isn’t working. Well, let’s think about a normal business. They would not expect to earn a profit in their first year and have a lot of costs that an online business would not need to deal with.

A brand-new online business needs to build trust with any reader coming to that site and build trust with the search engines so that your website appears high enough in the rankings to be found by someone.

That point is typically in the third month. Yet, people are giving up after a month. I saw my first sale after six months. Before that you need support to keep motivated and I found the best support to get, which I will share with you in a moment. It is hard to know if it is working until you achieve your first sale.

There is a definite mindset you need to achieve success online with affiliate marketing and if you have it, you can earn a lot more money than any other source of income you can find. I had considered getting a part-time job or even binary option trading. But when I factor in the time needed and the skill required – Affiliate Marketing works best for me. If you want to earn money online without taking risks this could be a good choice.

How Do I Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?

Like I said, Affiliate Marketing is not for everyone. It takes a lot of time and effort and I mean a lot. There is also factors that you need to learn like:

Website Development
Search Engine Optimisation
Content Creation
Online Marketing
Social Media Marketing

To just name a few. When I first came across the idea of Affiliate Marketing, it sounded like a great idea. But I didn’t have a clue about any of that. But I found a great training platform that offered the kind of support I had never seen before in my research.

That platform is called Wealthy Affiliate. Offering training for any skill level, it can help the right person start an affiliate marketing business, learn the skills required to get it ranked well in Google and once it has started earning you money – scale it to the point where you can leave the day job behind.

If you want to learn more about everything that Wealthy Affiliate has to offer, I highly suggest you read my full Wealthy Affiliate Review.

I will always recommend to anyone they do their research, before signing up with anyone. I have checked out a number of free training courses for affiliate marketing and even other platforms that are out there.

But you can tell the difference straightaway – most of the free ones have out of date information. The others promise a free trial, but you have to enter your credit card details.

A free starter membership with Wealthy Affiliate is free, with no catch. With access to 2 classrooms and 2 free websites. You can get started with affiliate marketing in a stress-free environment. There is no cost to that starter membership, and you can remain a free member for as long as you like.

But the most important factor of Wealthy Affiliate, aside from awesome training is the fact that you get access to affiliate marketing experts. Anytime you get stuck or need help, you just reach out to either me or the community to get help.

Conclusion

When you first started your search, you were probably looking for a normal way of earning extra money and these options will never go away. A part time retail job, distributing parcels for amazon, telemarketing, completing surveys. They all have the same premise, some of them you can do from home. But if I am honest, they all require a lot of your time for not a great return.

Freelancing, Affiliate Marketing or utilising both does give you a kind of freedom. But it also gives you an awesome route to making them your only source of income. It will require a lot of work in the beginning. But as your business starts to grow and you start turning a healthy profit, you can start to use other freelancers to do some of the work in your business and that gives you back all the time you invested in the first place. That can be time to enjoy your hobbies, interests. Take time with the family. Work from anywhere with no boss to answer to.

That was my first goal with my online business. We are well into our plan with Gem’s wedding stationary business, affiliate marketing playing its part well there, and that is why I wanted to launch this. Share what I had learned with others to help those who want to also share the same goals.

One of the points I covered earlier was the fact that not many people in the UK, have actually heard of affiliate marketing. I know I certainly hadn’t. But when you have immersed yourself for a couple of years in it, it shows what a simple premise it is. But that it still requires the same mindset as building a career. Start out small and work your way up. I know we all have financial goals with anything we do but keeping the non-financial goals in mind have a bigger stance on whether you are going to make this work.

If you feel like these options are not for you, then I wish you luck in whichever direction you choose. But if you feel like you have what it takes to make this work, then I will actually help you whenever you need help to achieve your goals. If you want to explore Freelancing, then I suggest you read this awesome guide. If you want to get started with your very own affiliate marketing business, I recommend a free starter membership with Wealthy Affiliate.

Thanks for checking out my guide, if you have any questions or want to know a little more please write them in the comments below and I will get back to your as soon as I can.

How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Website for Free

November 6, 2019December 15, 2018 by John Crossley

Affiliate Marketing is an awesome way of building an online business to earn money from home. Having your own website is a great platform for branching out and building an authority in your chosen niche to make it as lucrative as you can.

But if you are just starting out, you may be looking for a great website builder that gives you everything you need and is free. Well, today I am going to be talking about a great content management system for your website, how to get started for free plus some great bonuses that are included with this awesome website builder.

Let’s start with clarifying your understanding of what exactly is affiliate marketing…

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is where an affiliate gets rewarded for introducing a buyer to an online product or service. Amazon is the biggest marketplace online and is also has an affiliate program.

People online are constantly reviewing products before making that final decision to make a purchase, so they rely on honest reviews and advice from authority sites in a given niche.

Build yourself an online business, work hard to become an authority and affiliate marketing can easily earn you a full-time income from home.

But before we can start building that authority website, we need a website and content management system that makes it as pain-free as it can be to get started. That is why I recommend WordPress as that CMS for an Affiliate Marketer.

Related Post: How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

Why WordPress is a Great Choice for Affiliate Marketing?

I have used a number of different content management systems over the years, and honestly a number of them have a steep learning curve, and I spent more time learning how to do something with it then I did actually create content for the website. Content is king and a key element to building up that authority in your niche. I don’t want to have to use a complicated website builder to achieve something that WordPress can do in a simple way.

This also shows in the figures on how many people actually use WordPress. Over 50% of the website out there use WordPress.

You do not need to know anything about html or coding, just an easy menu system and more control over your website than any website builders, such as Wix.

One of our previous websites used Joomla, and I would not recommend it to anyone who isn’t an expert in website design. Way too complicated, in my mind anyway.

WordPress features a one-click install button to get you started. It is also highly versatile through the use of plugins. Instead of bogging your website down with features you may never use, you only install plugins as and when you need them to achieve a specific feature.

You can also change the look and feel of your website at any time, through the use of WordPress themes.

There are tons of resources out there on how to get the most out of WordPress, and it is by far the easiest content management system out there for affiliate marketers. Easily add your links into your website and even utilise plugins to make this task even easier.

You Need the Right Website Hosting

If you think about your website as the house, the land your house is built on is the web hosting. If you build your house on dodgy land, then you will have a problem for years to come.

That is the same premise, if you choose the wrong web hosting for your affiliate marketing website. People need to trust you when they visit your site, if they find it is constantly down or slow, they will not stay on your website to follow any of your affiliate links.

All you want to worry about when you have your website and affiliate marketing business up and running is creating engaging content to build up the levels of traffic needed to make this venture profitable.

We highly recommend SiteRubix, here are some of the key benefits you will have from a free starter account.

2 Free Websites
All-in-One SEO Pack: Out of the box SEO for your WordPress blog.
Daily Website Backups
24/7 Access to Support
30GB Website Space
500k Visitors/month bandwidth
It is powered by Wealthy Affiliate – get access to awesome training on WordPress, Affiliate Marketing, Online Business and access to Expert Online Entrepreneurs at any time for help and advice.

Build an Affiliate Marketing Website for Free – 4 Easy Steps

There are four easy steps to building an affiliate marketing website for free with WordPress.

Step One

Choose a relevant domain name in the box below. Make sure it is relevant to the niche you want to target with your affiliate marketing campaigns

Step Two

Complete your account set up, create your account to continue onto the SiteBuilder.

Step Three

Fill in the details about your website, choose the title of your new website and choose from one of the available themes

Step Four

Click the Big Green Button that states “Click Button to Build Site!”.

That is it, you now have a website for your budding affiliate marketing business.

The Special Bonuses… Expert Help & Support!

But that isn’t the end of the road for this… By building that website within SiteRubix, you gain access to help and support from some of the leading experts in Affiliate Marketing. You gain access to a platform called Wealthy Affiliate. Kyle and Carson are the owners and offer valuable training, help and support to any members who join to become successful in Affiliate Marketing or Online Business.

Using this training and the websites they offer has led to many of its members to successful online businesses.

If you are just starting out with the idea of affiliate marketing and want to truly build an online business that allows you to work from home, then I cannot recommend any platform other than Wealthy Affiliate.

This website is hosted on their hosting, the knowledge I offer about Affiliate Marketing has come from what I have learned from Kyle, Carson and many other entrepreneurs within Wealthy Affiliate.

All you need to bring to the party is a dedication to making it work and working hard to see it through.

Get Started Today!

You can get started with a free website today from any provider, but I would not be where I was today without the help and support that Wealthy Affiliate and SiteRubix offered to our online business. We learned so much from the training that we use on Gem’s wedding stationary business. We also felt we need to help other people who wanted to learn affiliate marketing the right way to with this website.

Having a website on its own isn’t enough. Learning the knowledge and then putting the work into achieving your goals is where it all starts.

If you would like to learn more about Wealthy Affiliate or SiteRubix before committing, then I totally understand. Researching is key when investing your time and effort into a program. Here are some useful posts, that you may find interesting reads.

Related Post: My Wealthy Affiliate Review

But if you would like to fully explore the platform without any investment, then I can recommend a free starter membership account. Get to see what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer, without any catch. If you find that it isn’t right for you, just log out and continue looking. If you find it is what you are looking for, carry on with the starter membership and build your won free website.

Whichever direction you choose to go, Good Luck.

If you have any questions or comments about how to build an affiliate marketing website for free, then please write them in the comments below and I will definitely come back to you as soon as I can.