Last week I watched a four video series from Eben Pagan called “Modern Marketing.” I took a lot out of watching these videos and immediately started implementing some of his ideas into my design.

In a couple of the videos he is critiquing websites of the attendees. There were several clear messages that got through to me:

1. Your message must be very clear. If a visitor arrives at your site and doesn’t immediately know what it is about, you haven’t done your job right.
2. You need to tap into a pain or hurt that your visitor has. In the gambling niche (where I mainly work) I think this is underdone. Instead of saying why a poker room is so good, tell the visitor what problem it will solve. Tell them the hurt it will heal. Tap into their emotions and give them a solution to their problem.
3. Design should be simple. It has to be easy to use. Many affiliates are bemused at how someone could possibly get lost. Some of the ugliest sites make the most money.

I took down some notes on what I leaned from Pagan. I respect this guy a lot so that is probably why I took immediate action. Here are the main points he raised about website design and the characteristics they should have:

• 2 font types – 3 maximum
• 2 font sizes – 3 maximum
• 2 colours – 3 maximum
• 2 alignments – align hard left and justify left. He stressed that websites almost always should have hard left alignments.
• 1 dominant visual effect – This is a big one. I have actually done a little bit of a redesign of my Australian Gambling homepage. I changed my side navigation color along with my news section color. It means that the panels in the middle have a strong dominant effect. Visitors should be drawn to one image element.
• Clear visual hierarchy
• Follow natural reading gravity. A reader naturally reads from top to bottom and left to right.
• Simplify and streamline. Make everything quicker. It should be simple for a visitor to find what they want fast and easily. Put a sign up button or download now in front of their faces. Write simple instructions, let them know what they want.
• Big, bold headlines.
• Use sub-headlines.
• Bulleted lists. In Dan McCarthy’s Advanced copywriting (which I highly recommend) he says this is the single most important copywriting feature. Hence, why you see me writing in bulleted lists now.
• Blocks of text. He says long, narrow pages are much easier to read. If you break them up correctly, they should be easy to scan.
• Include captions with images. This is a simple way to communicate with the reader.
• A formula that he preaches that I find that helps me is: simplicity, repetition, contrast, alignment, thirds.
• Balance. The rule of thirds that I just alluded to is included in this. A page must be balanced and the rule of thirds helps with that in regards to website usability. An image up the top, then a headline, the a block of text is a perfect example of the rule of thirds. A balanced page will “feel” right.
• Themes. No he is not talking about the latest WordPress theme. He is talking about sticking to the theme of your site. If you write in a particular way, or have a certain design feature, continue with it. It should be consistent throughout the whole site.
• Clarity, not beauty. Do not ever sacrifice the usability of an affiliate website for aesthetics.
• Emotional needs. This is what I alluded to earlier. You need to find an emotional need and give them what they desire. Human beings are not logical, there will always be a unique reason for them wanting to buy something.

If you haven’t already been exposed to Eben Pagan then I highly recommend you do so. Some of his courses are simply superb, and he brings marketing strategies that go well beyond the thinking of others. I am currently doing week one of his “Wake Up Productive” course and it is amazing so far (had 4 intro videos).

He has sold millions of dollars worth of affiliate products so he knows what he’s talking about. I don’t want you to take everything he says as gospel, but he gave me a level of thinking I had never encountered before.

If you are a poker affiliate I suggest you take a look at Randy Ray’s poker website usability post.

I urge you to read as much as you can on Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt website. There are several other great resources to find if you just do a regular Google search on website usability.

I find this part of being an affiliate quite fascinating. It’s interesting to see how something that I easily overlook can have a dramatic effect on how my website functions. This week I have added bread crumbs, increased my font size to 14px and changed font to Verdana. In addition to that all my links are blue and underlined. Visited links are purple and active links are yellow. These kind of things I never took much notice of before.

Another factor I have heard quite a lot of people talk about in the past is the color of call to actions. Sign up buttons being green, rather than red because it looks safer and more trustworthy, even put them in the right frame of mind?

I will have to do more testing and report back with my findings. In the mean time you can split test yourself by installing programs that make videos of your visitor’s actions. Graham Rowlands wrote a great article on the best programs to use in his article on tools to track your visitors.

As always, I love to hear your feedback on anything that I write about. What do you think about the design changes on this blog?

Before I tell you how you can get your hands on thousands of dollars of business products for free; I don’t want this post to turn into an ethics debate.

I have found a way (well known by many) to download ebooks, audios, DVDs and other business training courses. All of those “guru” products that are being sold over the Internet. Some of these retail x,xxx.

The site that I’m talking about is BizTorrents. It’s all pretty self explanatory. You sign up and find what you are looking for, the download it. Most of these type of sites stress that you need to upload as much as you download. Just like any community, you need to be apart of it and share.

For those that have never downloaded a torrent before you will need to download BitTorrent software. I recommend you get uTorrent. Install that on your computer and then you will be able to download the files I mentioned.

I have stumbled across some really cool things on this site. I recommend downloading Ken McCarthy’s Advanced copywriting course. Have a look through and tell me what you think.

This site literally has so much value it’s unbelievable. If anyone has an invite to The Vault – get in contact with me.

When it comes to being an online affiliate, sometimes it seems like we are all a bunch of tight arses. Everyone is striving to earn extra cash, stumble upon the next big thing and never give anything away. While I do agree that we should all be looking to do what is best for oursevles in the long run, we don’t have to be a tight arse to achieve that.

Yesterday we were discussing link exchanges and people taking them down. Whether they are intentional or not, it got me thinking about how tight everyone is. If we all were generous and easy goinh with things like dishing out links, we would all be better off for it.

I don’t think I have ever turned down a legitimate link exchange request from a solid site. In saying that, I have never really been a big exchanger because I never actively seek out links. I just go along with them when the opportunity arises.

Recently I have been trying to just link to sites that are worth of a link. Everyone is oh so scared that they will be wasting link juice, helping a competitor and the list goes on. I do understand to some degree why people are tight arses but I think people can and will do a 180 spin when they see things from my angle.

Why Should You Be a Generous Affiliate?

There are a number of reasons why in my opinion you are better off being generous. Firstly because noone likes a tight arse. I know I don’t. If someone tries to screw me on a link exchange my reaction is… pfft whatever man don’t worry about it. Or even if I do go ahead with it I will remember it in the future.

Next on the list is the opposite of the first reason. People like generous affiliates. When you need a link, help or anything people will WANT to help you. One way, unsolicited links go a long way towards helping people out. If they don’t link back, who cares? if their site is worth linking to, link to it. There is such a bad misconception in this industry that it’s a waste to link out. In fact, it has been proven that if you link to authority sites that it will actually help you.

So what should you take out of reading this? That I’m having some lovey dovey rant about links? No. There are plenty of tight arses around that will just keep taking. Seek out other affiliates that are in the same boat as you and want to HELP YOU to help themselves.

Believe it or not, we can all help each other more than we think.

Cool person of the day award: This goes to Kaus. She runs online slots is always helping me out whenever I ask and I haven’t really had much of a chance to help her in return. She helped me a lot with sorting out my Craps site and her slots site really just kick arse. Keep up the good work showing your visitors the best places to play slots online

MJ from Online Poker Affiliate made a post today at Poker Affiliate Listings about people taking down links that were involved in an exchange.

This has got me thinking more about how we need to take control of our businesses and our own destiny. He has all of his link exchanges written down in a document and checks them monthly. This is a great idea and is a sure sign that he is on top of his business. MJ is going from strength to strength as a poker affiliate so I encourage you all to check out his awesome blog.

The time has now come for me to start building the resource section of Successful Affiliate. I simply haven’t got the time to go through and search for all the best resources. I am on a new computer now so I have lost all of my bookmarks.

If readers here can help me out with what they believe should be added (your own sites or others) that would be great. Opinions on new sections to be added will be appreciated as well.

The end of the month is drawing near and it is shaping up to be my best month yet. Even though I haven’t done much work because of my situation, my hard work in the past is beginning to pay off. How is everyone elses month going? Last month was my worst and now this is probably my second best; the gambling industry at its best!

I will leave you guys with a photo of the bridal party from the engagement party. Good times.

I'm the tallest 2nd from the right.

First off, I would like to apologise to the readers of this blog for not posting in the last couple of weeks. I should have made a post telling everyone that I wouldn’t be posting for a little while.

I have now moved to Sydney and am living with my brother and his fiance. They are renovating the house so I am here to help out and knuckle down with my affiliate work.

Since I came here almost two weeks ago things have been hectic to say the least. I have been painting, cleaning, chopping and hammering away to prepare for the engagement party that was on this past weekend. I even managed to hit myself in the shin with a hammer. I am one of the least handy people you will ever meet so it has been good to gain a few life skills.

I have only had the internet on here for around a week as well. At this point the internet is sucky. It keeps dropping out all the time and has taken me over half an hour just to log in to make this post.

Now that the engagement party is over (which was a blast) and the renovations have been mostly completed I can settle down, fire up and get back into the swing of things.

Interview with Nick Haslem

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Graeme from Casino Affiliate Bible. He is pure class when it comes to affiliating and I have recently begun working with him on my Craps site.

He has hundreds of sub affiliates and is one of the smartest guys in this industry. I encourage all of you to read and listen to what this guy has to say.

The experience of doing an interview for Graeme was exciting and rewarding for me. I’m happy with the way that it went and it gave me a chance to reflect on myself in a way that is easy to dismiss or overlook.

Here is the full interview with Nick Haslem.

For those that were worried that I wasn’t posting anymore I apologise for that. I am now settled and can back to providing you guys with some of my insight into what it takes to become a successful affiliate.

I have recently started reading the widely acclaimed book titled “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. I will keep you up to date with what I learn and take away from reading it. So far I am impressed with the quality of the book.

On that note I will leave you with the principle he teaches in the first chapter:

Don’t critise, condemn or complain.

Today I have taken it upon myself to cut out all of my biggest distractions. They hit me with a double or even triple whammy on my bottom line.

Let me explain it a bit. I estimate that I check the forums way more than 10 times a day and most likely spend 2-3 hours a day completely wasting my time. That is a lot of content I could be writing or other revenue making activities.

So how is it a double whammy? I was listening to the Poker Affiliate Listing Radio Show today and they had a speaker who owns Wicked Fire. This really opened up my eyes to distractions that are slowing me down.

Not only do I waste an unbelievable amount of time on forums they make me like everyone else. It has turned me into a yes man and takes away original thoughts. When I first came into the industry I had lots of original thoughts but they have slowly evaporated. Well maybe, it is just more of the fact that I igmore my original thoughts now.

I have now blocked myself from all gambling forums that I visit. I used Leech Block which is a Firefox add-on. It even allows you to stop visiting websites for certain periods of the day. So you don’t have to compeltely shut yourself off from them.

Block Yourself from Websites

One of the critical points that I got from the radio show is how unoriginal I am. I don’t offer anything unique and there are many other websites that do the same thing. I will report back with how things are on the up foe me.

The last few days have got me thinking about a variety of things to do with affiliating. One of those things is the weather… clutching at straws much? Nope.

I can distinctly remember sitting in this same room in Summer time and be dripping in sweat. Not only that, the material on the chair would mkae me sticky and gross in general. Now the season has changed though. We now have snuggly cool weather in the Southern Hemisphere. While that helps me get a lot more done through the day – it can be a bitch waking up in the morning.

Maybe I am too soft and need to take some of my own advice by growing some balls. But, it is so cold in the morning that I am now over sleeping for about 3 hours. I make up for it when I’m awake, but it sucks to be waking up so late in the day.

Aside from the weather, for gambling affiliates we have the WSOP. This is always a good time for affiliates because there are plenty of promotions going on and great current content to write.

While I’m fairly sure that most gambling affiliates see a spike in their revenue around this time of year, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best for the whole year. I haven’t been around for as long as most other affiliates (this is my 2nd year) so it would be interesting to hear what others think about this.

My Weekend

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t written on here. I took the weekend off and went to see The Presets on Sunday night. While they weren’t as good as what I was hoping it was still a good night out. We ended up staying at The Novotel which is a 4 Star Hotel I think.

Took me all of yesterday to recover from all the Vodka. The chick I was having pre drinks with was spewing before we even left which was kind of funny. Chicks can’t really handle their drinks. Being the gentleman that I am, I finished the bottle for us.

Nick before The Presets

Was a good night and well worth it. Have a lot of work to catch up on though. Have a lot of those burning “man I have to get this done” jobs to do. Have a good week everyone. I will post a couple of videos we took of the concert when I get them off my friends.

Now before you let out a loud SIGH this isn’t going to be yet another generic post that just says “pick a niche.” Tricked you. Yes it is.

Today I have realised something that I have been wondering for a very long about why it was happening. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been struggling with my efficiency and trying to pump out enough content each day.

What did I work out today? That if you are in the right niche, doing something you love then you will be much better off. Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?

The results are astounding. While in the past weeks I have been slaving away each day to only finish up with 3-4 articles written and left wondering why i didn’t get much done; it has now suddenly hit me. I’m not that interested in writing about it.

In the last 24 hours I have kicked off my Australian gambling site. That involves covering a lot of sport – something that I have always loved. I read sport news every day so it is only fitting that I write about it too. I am passionate about it and it shows in my writing.

In the past 24 hours I have written 16 news posts and this is my 2nd blog post. While news posts are a lot easier to write than strategy because they are shorter and don’t require as much research; my work rate has improved remarkably.

While we are all here to make money and enter a niche that doesn’t have much competition etc etc – it can never be underestimated that you have to be passionate about it.

I really do hope people that are reading this take something away from it; rather than the ‘pick a niche” BS. Think about whether you are doing something that you love and whether you can see yourself doing it long term. You will be surprised at what you are capable of.

Excuse me – I have some more writing to do

I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because I’m on a roll with my day. The other factor to take in consideration is that I’m at a friends house and she has dial up speed from downloading too much porn.

Today is pretty much what I describe as my average day as an affiliate. As typical day to day life goes I guess it sums up what I do.

I woke up and had breakfast and a shower. Saw my friend off to work and i then had the house to myself. After that I held discussions about a partnership and we decided to go ahead with it.

The afternoon consisted of going into the finer details about how we should go about things on the gambling site. We are planning the site to be massive so we are trying to cover all bases.

In the early evening i had a nap because I didn’t get much sleep last night. When I woke up I was very hay feverish.

Now that I have had dinner and proceed with work on the gambling site things are on a roll. While this may not be the most interesting post in the world and you may not have learned much – I guess some days they are just standard.

While I might not be involved in business partnership discussion every day, nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

Hope everyone is having a killer day and getting loads of work done.

Self reflection can be one of the toughest things we can do – but ultimately to improve ourselves we must recognise our weaknesses and improve them.

One of my biggest downfalls of late is not having enough balls. When it comes down to the bottom line I have been piss farting around in critical areas. What does this mean? Let me explain a little bit further.

If you have been chatting to me lately or have read what I’ve written you may have noticed. What I’m talking about is my general outlook on the industry and how to go about things.

I can often be heard saying things like “oh that site is spammy” and “that doesn’t offer anything to the industry.” When it comes down to what makes money though, I’m lagging behind the rest of my competition.

I haven’t been going after the money terms and I haven’t been aggressive enough in my marketing. I can improve myself greatly in this area. Outside of online marketing I take a no bullshit approach, put in the hard yards and get the result. I have to take a leaf out of my own book and implement this into my online marketing efforts.

The last 24 hours have really woken me up to the fact that I am pretty soft when it comes down to this concept. I am readjusting my SEO strategies accordingly to go after the terms that will bring in the dollars. I will be gearing my sites more towards creating wealth; rather than going after the airy fairyness of providing the greatest user experience ever.

While won’t be going as far as making my sites unfriendly towards my users, I will be far more aggressive. I’m a saleman at heart and that it what I need to do; sell. I will be showing my visitors exactly what I want them to do and enforcing my call to actions.

I think if I tighten up my strategy in this regard my results will greatly improve. While it may not be easy to look that hard at oneself, ultimately that’s what is needed to take affiliating to the next level for me.

So the question to you is; are you misleading yourself or are you brutally honest in your performance? Ask yourself that question and if you know you have to change something then the answer is simple. Do it.

Grow some balls.