I have been hearing this a lot lately, that Google hates affiliates. People are spreading this around because of the dreaded “Google slap” or the fact that Google will not let you set up an ad directly linking to an affiliate offer.

Let me explain something to you and you may have a different outlook towards Google. First Google does not hate affiliates, heck they have their own affiliate network so they obviously don’t hate affiliates.

Google prides their selves on providing the best search content in the world, thus the reason for not allowing direct linking to affiliate offers. If Google allowed this then you might have 10 sponsored ads linking to the exact same page. Call me stupid but who wants to see 10 different ads linking to the exact same page? This is why Google will not allow it and I think it makes for a better experience for people who are searching for quality content.

It has also been said that Google hates squeeze pages, which is true if it is nothing more than a squeeze page. If you have some good quality content on the page then Google has no problem with it. There are three other things that Google requires in order to give you a good quality score. A link to your privacy policy, a link to your terms of service policy and a contact link. If you have all of these and provide good content Google will love you.

Things are much different than they were several years ago and in order to prosper you must learn to think outside the box!

Stop thinking that Google hates affiliates!

Laser Focus

I’m going to get straight to the point. If you don’t learn to focus you are going to have a very hard time to get anything done. Period.

Stop trying to run several projetcs at the same time. Stop buying new reports or products when you are working on your own stuff. Stop wasting time browsing through the Warrior forum and especially the WSO section looking for new ‘magic bullets’.

If I want you to get anything out of this blog post then it’s that you need to focus on the project that you specified to reach your goals and on this project only. Be selfish, be ignorant or whatever but IGNORE all these shiny products and product launches out there.

Here is the truth: I STARTED to make serious money when I STOPPED buying everything under the sun!

You won’t succeed if you don’t stop buying new stuff. I know how hard it is because it took me months to stop buying the latest and greatest.

Get only this one thing right and you’ll thrive and you will reach your goals!

5 Secrets of Successful Membership Sites

Being the best means taking cues from the best. When it comes to membership sites, the best include such big shots as Monster.com, classmates.com, YouTube, MySpace and more. Here are 5 secrets of the big boys and how you can use them to launch your membership site.

1. Successful membership sites have a specific niche with a demand for their products and information. Think about classmates.com. What a fantastic niche! Imagine fitting the need of millions of people that want to connect to their old classmates, or are simply curious to see what everybody is up to. What is your niche? Even if it isn’t a niche that will reach millions, the tighter your niche, the more money there is to be made.

2. Successful membership sites know the value of maximizing their revenue by offering multiple revenue streams including:

• · Affiliate Programs
• · Advertising
• · Information products

Monster.com is a website that makes fantastic use of their market’s needs by offering relocation services, job counseling, resume and cover letter services, education tools, and even money management tools. They also make money with advertisers and partner/affiliate programs. Follow the same money making strategies and you’ll be sitting pretty.

3. Successful membership sites realize the importance of building your brand and increasing exposure to your site

• · Logo
• · Slogan
• · Repetitive design elements

YouTube has to be one of the most recognizable membership site logos around. Whether you see it from a distance on the side of a bus or at the top of a webpage, it’s instantly recognizable because it is simple, clear, and consistent. Three easy rules to follow when you’re designing your own logo and slogan.

4. Successful membership sites are successful at generating traffic via various techniques including:

• · SEO
• · Content
• · Linking
• · Careful choice of keywords
• · Press releases

Weight Watchers and Elance are two membership sites that have capitalized on the power of keywords, word of mouth advertising, and valuable content. Whether you’re searching for recipes, success stories, or even fitness advice, Weight Watchers has content on the subject. Elance operates a little bit differently, they’ve harnessed the power of the keyword “freelance” to make millions.

Use these strategies to drive traffic to your membership site and success is virtually guaranteed.

5. Successful membership sites realize the value of keeping your members happy by offering:

• · Articles
• · Trainings
• · Product reviews
• · Guest interviews
• · Content from other sites
• · Free products to download
• · Active forums.
• · Regular e-mail contact
• · Polls and surveys.

Pick any major membership website and take a look at the benefits they provide to their members. Monster offers a full range of services from education to relocation. Weight Watchers offers recipes, menu planning, and support for people with weight loss goals. EHarmony offers a bookstore, advice, and even parenting tips . that’s really jumping the gun but it works for them. Give your members what they want and then go the extra step, give them what they don’t know they want – yet.

10 Membership Site Must Haves

#1 A Niche. Marketing your website to the world is just a little too broad. However, marketing it to too small of a crowd will mean that you won’t be very profitable. Your niche must be targeted and have a demand for your information. A tricky line to balance? Not too tricky, let your passions or interests be your guide. Chances are if you’re interested in it, others will be too.

#2 Multiple Streams of Revenue . Subscriptions are only the beginning. There are numerous ways to generate profits from your membership site. From advertising, to information products, to affiliate programs, the sky is the limit. Take a look at how your competition does it. Take a look at how major players like Monster.com and YouTube make money. Uses what you learn and reach for the sky.

#3 A successful subscription model. Free membership or weekly membership? Monthly subscription or annual. No decision is more difficult for the membership site owner than this. You want to make sure that you price yourself fairly and continue to make profits. Decide first what kind of site you want to offer and the ideal subscription model will follow. YouTube is free, Elance costs plenty both are successful and profitable.

#4 A solid brand. Brand recognition means traffic and it means you can charge tons of money for advertising space. Brand recognition also means more leverage in the market. 9 times out of ten people will by a Coke over a no name knock off. The same holds true for membership sites. People will pay significantly more for a membership with a well known website than they will for one they’ve never heard of.

#5 Traffic. If no one knows about your site how will you make money? You won’t. That is why traffic generation techniques are vital. That doesn’t mean that you want to employ every single traffic generating technique available. Some will be significantly more powerful for you than others. For example, article marketing may be the ticket to thousands of subscriptions and PPC campaigns may result in a net loss. It all depends on your market. Research techniques, try them out, find the strategies that are successful for you.

#6 Content. Content is one place that you cannot skimp. Content is vital for search engine ranking but maybe more importantly it is vital for your members. Content has to be quality or you’ll lose members. Content has to be regular or you lose search engine ranking, and members. If nothing else, invest your time and money in providing your members excellent content.

#7 Happy members. How do you make your members happy? Several ways, provide them an easy to use website, provide them with an abundance of content, resources, and products, and provide them with multiple ways to interact and influence the direction of the website. Employ Website 2.0 concepts and embrace your members as an integral part of your website’s development and future.

#8 An Efficient payment process. There’s nothing worse than struggling to pay for something. In fact, 9 times out of 10 if you have to jump through hurdles to pay, you’ll change your mind. Payment, whether it is for a membership or for a product, must be quick, easy, and painless for your members. If that means that you have to do a little extra work on your end to find the ideal payment process then do it, otherwise you’ll lose members before you ever have them.

#9 A website that is legal and tells you so. With so many charlatans online today, it pays to go the extra mile to inform your members, and potential members, that you have their best interests at heart. Post a terms of service statement on your website. Post your privacy policy too. Encourage your members to read these documents. Make sure that they know you’re on the up and up!

#10 An exit strategy. YouTube was launched in 2005, and within two years was bought by Google for an alleged $1.65 billion. Hmm…I wonder if they had an exit strategy in mind when they founded the site? Of course they did and they timed it perfectly. Plan your goodbye before you say hello and you too could profit from the sale of your site.

After Google started slapping its affiliates, more and more internet marketers have started to move towards Pay-per-view (PPV) marketing. Although it is not new, PPV marketing is a relatively untapped traffic source. It differs from pay per click advertising by the fact that you are charged each time your popup gets served on a computer with adware installed, not for each click on your ad. Hence the term, “pay per view”. This adware gets installed as part of ad support software like games, toolbars, and screensavers that a user has installed on their computer. There are many PPV networks in this space, with TrafficVance, LeadImpact, Media Traffic, and Direct CPV being some of the more popular PPV networks.

What makes PPV marketing so attractive is the potentially cheap cost. On some PPV networks, you can get impressions for as low as $0.01 per click for certain keywords and URLs. However, since you are bidding against other PPV marketers the actual costs will vary depending on the keyword or URL. The other big advantage of using PPV marketing is that you don’t have to worry about the dreaded Google slap. Although you have to make sure your landing pages comply with the network’s rules, there is no quality score algorithm that you have to deal with. Both direct linking to offers and creating landing pages are both viable strategies, and you should test both to see which works best for you.

Currently, there are not many good resources about PPV marketing, but the best I’ve found so far is called The PPV Playbook by David Ford. This is a short 20 page ebook that details all the ins and outs of PPV marketing. David is well known in the PPV marketing world and he’s given sessions on PPV at conferences like Affiliate Summit. In addition to his eBook, he’s also started the PPV Playbook Coaching forum. This is the biggest and most active community of PPV marketers around. On the boards, you will find PPV Video Lessons, Case Studies, Follow Along Campaigns, landing page reviews along with some great discussion. The site has over 700 members and is growing very quickly.

There is great potential for making money with pay per view marketing and it is definitely a traffic source you should look into. Even if you are doing well as a pay per click marketer, it is always a good idea to find additional ways to diversify your income. It is easy to get started with PPV and many marketers are achieving extremely high ROI with their campaigns.