What’s Hip Hapnin?

I have been asked this information a couple times in the last few days so I asked my buddy nelson @ SEO.com to look this up for me.  I knew you could do it (ever try to put “MySpace” into your ad copy?) I just didn’t know what the actual steps were.

You can completely block the use of your brand names in any Ad Text or copy.   To start this process you must file a complaint with Google.Here is a link to file a complaint: Google Trademark Complaints

These are the things that Google will need to know in order to stop people from using your name in their ads:

• Name of trademark owner (Either the company or person)
• Contact info for owner (if it’s not the company)
• If the name, the design or both are trademarked
• If you have registered your trademark with the US government, or any other government (you can only block your Tradmarks  in countries where we own the trademark)

If you want anyone (partners and resellers) to be an exception to the rule. you can add their google id or login email to your account.  (I am not totally clear on what this takes)

It is important to remember that this is only referring to using your name in ad copy.  Google is not saying that if some joker writes a blog post about how “Walmart sucks” that it isn’t going to show up in a search for Walmart

Link Baiting is when you put something on your site for the sole purpose of getting somebody to link to your webpage. The idea is that if all of these other sites think you are good enough to link to then google should too. If google loves you then everything else in your life should naturally fall into place. You will lose weight, get a girlfriend, dominate at WOW, move out of your moms basement and regrow your hair.

So admittedly my blog sucks and so does most of my traffic. You may be asking yourself…”self: why would I listen to this guy when his daily visits are embarrassing and his pagerank pathetic?” I must admit that is an appropriate question.

In the spirit of open source here are unattributed ideas I have stolen from all over the web (If you think I stole one of them from you your probably right):

1. Write some crap and then hit the “stumble” button. This is the easy button equivalent of website traffic. You are garuanteed to get at least a couple hundred page views. Many of you are reading this now because I hit that button. Do me a favor and hit it again…Thanks!
2. Insult Nerds and things that they love. I love my MacBook but if I say something about it sucks and that Jobs looks stupid in his mock turtleneck i am guaranteed to get some action. (virtual action - not attention from girls)
3. Get a better design - this blog is a free template and it’s boring. But until I start to get a paycheck from it I am not going to spend a dime. But it is kindof a chicken and egg thing…If you are interested in a paycheck then spend the dime.
4. Social Networks - Everyone knows this one but let me just say that Digg has always failed me. I really need to say more things that nerds love. I can usually get some nice traffic from other sources like Reddit
5. Write better stuff - I suck at this one
6. Actually do something amazing - if you build it they will come - this is hard to do but worth doing. Why is it #6?
7. Top ten list are for sissy’s - 101 lists are the new top ten. But be careful because soon the 1001 list will be the new 101 list. You better get started now.
8. Turn your content inside out - On the old web people were really concerned about getting people to the website. It was all about “exclusive” content for subscribers. Those days are done only the WSJ does that anymore. Share your content, let your subscribers consume HOW, WHERE OR WHEN THEY MAY! Make it a website BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE. You can do this with RSS and a bunch of other crap.
9. Build some backlinks - Squidoo, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Google Groups, DMOZ, del.icio.us, there are about a billion other sites where you can also get a link.
10. Link trading - I have a suggestion, only do this with websites that you would want a link from even if search engines didn’t exist. Why? Search is getting smarter all the time and soon they will see right through directories and link trading sites if they don’t already so don’t wast your time.
11. Give something away - I don’t know come up with something…(tip: it should be something you don’t have to pay for and that can easily scale - no duh) Free Templates are popular with geeks, Doesn’t have to be a Drupal or Wordpress template either. You could give away an Excel spreadsheet template that you use in your consulting
12. Email your friends and beg for links
13. Beg for links in your post (that is a hint once again i am actually asking you to link to me)

If anybody has better ideas than this please leave a comment.

So I am asked this question a lot. “how do you make money on the internet?” of course the answer to that is as complicated as the question “how do you make money offline?” Just like the “Real World” there are thousands of ways to make money. One of the simplest ways to get started on the web is through affiliate marketing. I am going to try to explain as simply as possible how this is done. Follow these steps in order and you will soon have a wallet jam packed with George Washingtons.

1. Choose a Niche: This is easier said than done. When you really decide to start your online business spend a lot of time with this because it is probably the most important thing you can do. I will give you a hint. The best niches are very specialized. Generally speaking the more popular something is the more competitive it will be and the less you can make. My first successful stint into affiliate marketing I was pushing logo design through logoworks

2. Set up a website: the hard way to do this is to buy hosting, buy a domain name, and have a website coded. The simple, fast and very effective way is to setup a blog. There are a lot of free blogs my personal favorite is wordpress but blogger is easy too.

3. Sign up for an affiliate marketing service: The purpose of these companies is to play the roll of the middle man. In the early days you would have to establish these partnerships one at a time and have to worry about payment from every website you associate with. Now there is a middle man to solve all of those problems. When you log into the site they have a large directory of websites that you can search to find companies in the niche you have chosen. Nearly all affiliate marketing networks are based on CPA (Cost Per Action). What does this mean? You only get paid when the website you partner with gets what they want. Usually that means a sale. So if a visitor to your website clicks on the link and goes to the affiliate site you make money if that visit results in a purchase.

For example with logoworks you make 10% of everything that is sold on the website. So if you were to click on that image and then make a purchase Commission Junction would send me a check. The other affiliate network I use is LinkShare. Both are free to join.

4. Create content: you have to remember that you are not selling a product. The purpose of your content should be to convert your website traffic to traffic on the partner website. They will take care of “closing the deal” you just send them the lead.

5. Drive Traffic to your website: The most effective way to do that is with pay-per-click ads through the search engines. This is another post entirely. But this is how you can get started, click on this link and sign up for an adwords account. Google sells keywords based on bids. This is another reason you can make more money with a niche. The less competitive the keyword the cheaper it is to drive traffic to your website.

The trick is to pay less for the traffic to your website than what you are making from your affiliates. Sounds simple right? Actually it is but there is a little bit of a learning curve so start small and grow slowly.