What inspires you to keep posting on the Real Estate Affiliate’s blog?
Blogging is a passion of mine as I have been doing it for many years now. The blogs are a great way of developing and forming an audience that shares a common interest in affiliate marketing. By engaging with the blog, you are given the opportunity to build a community of users who share an interest in the affiliate marketing industry. I often receive messages from people who read the blog and tell me that they were inspired to use what they had learned in their own personal affiliate marketing projects and campaigns. So, sharing some of the knowledge I have gained through my experience of the affiliate marketing world helps others to get that one step closer to achieving their marketing goals.
What is bot traffic?
Ok, so bot traffic is basically artificial traffic that visits a website. Bot traffic is generated by software applications that run automated commands and functions. Bots can carry out mundane and repetitious functions swiftly and efficiently, which surpass normal human levels, therefore making it a much more effective way of testing the workings of a website.
A bot’s capability to perform automated tasks hastily and efficiently allows for them to be used for both positive and negative functions associated with using a website. On the one hand, you have bots that fulfill a positive function, for example, making sure that all the backlinks and links on the website are working properly. On the other hand, you have bots that fulfill a negative function, for example, bots that are programmed to spam the comments section.
Bots are essentially programmed to carry out automated tasks quickly and repetitively. For this reason alone, they can execute a variety of functions. Search engines like Google use bots as a way of surveying and testing information on traffic and search results, allowing search engines to ensure that SERPs are constantly working optimally and efficiently.
Could you elaborate on how bot traffic is used positively and negatively?
Of course, bot traffic can be used to perform the following positive functions:
- SEO bots categorize and arrange websites which allows search engines to set out their search engine results pages proficiently and accurately.
- Some bots are used to continuously test the overall health of a website, for example, loading speeds, link functionality.
- Scraping bots are used to gather valuable data from websites including email addresses and telephone numbers.
Alternatively, bot traffic can be used to carry out the following negative functions:
- Bots can be programmed to spam the comment sections of a website.
- Some bots can be programmed to aim for websites with high levels of traffic with the main intention of inundating and swamping the website’s responsiveness.
- Bots can be used to carry out DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which unsettles the normal flow of traffic to a website.
What would be the best game plan for someone who is just starting out in the affiliate marketing industry?
To begin with, it all boils down to the available monthly budget. For example, if you have a small-scale budget of a couple thousand euros my advice would be to begin with pop traffic.
Starting your marketing journey with pop traffic is good because it narrows down the elements of a website that need to be analyzed and enhanced. Pop traffic is effective because it provides your website with high levels of traffic and gives you the opportunity to see what areas of your website need optimization.
Another great option for novices to consider, depending on the available budget, would be social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as this allows for e-commerce and social media marketing which effectively expands your audience scope.
Additionally, I would also suggest that sweepstakes are a great way of increasing traffic and gathering lead information.
What is a sweepstake?
Think of a sweepstake as a raffle or contest in which prizes can be won by users who sign up. This is an effective way of promoting a product or event and increases the likelihood of broadening audiences.
What qualities does an affiliate need to be successful?
I would say that the most important qualities must be perseverance, hard work, and determination. When you are just starting out you need to run trial and error techniques on all aspects of your website and affiliate marketing strategies, which means that your learning curve needs to be huge. You need to analyze and track your marketing campaigns constantly as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is always being updated with new advancements in technologies, consumer behavior continuously changes as well, trends also continuously fluctuate. So, you need to have perseverance in order to keep updating and modifying your website and marketing strategy if you want to stay trending.
How do changes in the markets and the way they are regulated affect affiliates?
A successful affiliate needs to be able to adapt to changes in market regulations, which change from year to year. Don’t think that regulation will hamper or damage your campaigns, you just have to develop new ideas that correlate with the changes.
What advice would you give affiliates that are struggling in terms of profitability and accumulating traffic?
Competition has and always will exist in affiliate marketing, that’s just the way it is. When prices rise and traffic increases you could use a more direct approach, so for example rather than buying from the traffic source you could buy from the main sites, which should in theory, increase revenue by reducing the number of networks you have. As I said perseverance is key to succeeding as an affiliate because the industry is constantly in a state of flux.
What mistakes do affiliates make?
The most common mistake I see new affiliates making is they select high pay-out offers in one go and forget to budget correctly. Therefore, it is better to begin with low pay-out offers and slowly turn to higher pay-out offers if you see that it is working.
Another grave mistake some affiliates make is when they run Facebook campaigns with black hat offers, but ultimately, they get banned and find it difficult to engage with social media network platforms after that.
Finally, a costly mistake that affiliates make is not budgeting correctly, by investing too little or too much into their campaigns and then they don’t know how to analyze and find out what is working and what isn’t working for them.
What are the best traffic sources?
Facebook and Google Ads are the largest traffic sources out there with many, if not all, businesses focusing on e-commerce and social media marketing. Digital and social marketing has huge potential in terms of building a business because of its sheer popularity nowadays.
What is trending in the world of affiliate marketing?
I believe that e-commerce has made a huge impression on affiliate marketing and it is showing signs of longevity. A recent trend involving Print On Demand Dropshipping (POD) and Cryptocurrencies are making their way up the popularity ladder. Trends within affiliate marketing are always changing so a smart affiliate needs to be adaptable and aware of developments within the markets.
