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Looking to drive more traffic to your blog? Don’t sacrifice quality content for traffic-generating “tricks” that make your blog look like it exists only to serve up Google Adwords. Here are a few of them that make me crazy:

Linking a business concept with a ridiculously unrelated pop culture reference. Really, does anything scream “I want clicks” more than a post entitled “14 Ways B2B Marketing Strategy is Like a Lady Gaga Concert”?

Numbers. I’m as much of a fan of writing (and reading) the “5 Things That…” and “17 Great Ways To…” list-style posts as the next blogger. This blog has its fair share. But when 90% of your post titles start with a number, you’re trying too hard.

Excessively long list posts. If you have 182 things to say on any topic, you should consider writing a book, not a blog. I just make sure my CSS layout is okay so that the design comes across as professional, but that’s about it. Not length matters, layout and content matter most!

Pop-ups. It’s so annoying when I’m midway through reading a blog post and suddenly the screen goes dim and I’m invited to SIGN UP for a FREE WHITE PAPER. It’s akin to being interrupted in the library by someone shoving a flyer in your face. Go away. Better check out our post about SEO techniques for Affiliate Marketers.

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The main aim of the traditional method of marketing was to get as many eyeballs on your services and products as was possible and then hope for a certain percentage of people to purchase. Television commercials, radio advertising, yellow pages, magazine ads, direct mail, etc…are all examples of traditional advertising methods.

These methods are now no longer effective, as several customers now dislike “one way” messaging. People now no longer trust advertisers. A recent survey done in the US indicated that only 16 percent of people now trust ads whereas 79 percent of people prefer consumer recommendations. Therefore, today marketers are seeking alternative ways to connect directly with their potential customers.

Internet marketing originally became popular by using websites and optimizing those sites using various SEO (search engine optimization) techniques. Though it is still a worthwhile strategy, now SEO has been updated by the Web 2.0 strategies, such as social media marketing.

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I often get asked the question of what Affiliate Marketing is when I send proposals to potential clients.

In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is commission-based marketing. From the perspective of the seller, it is creating a program to pay commissions to those that market your products and services for you. From the perspective of the marketer, it is marketing a product or service and making a commission for each sale.

There are numerous services out there that manage affiliate marketing programs to ensure everyone involved is treated fairly: Google Affiliate Network, Commission Junction, AvantLink, LinkConnector, etc.

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