Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Why Organic Real Estate On The Web Is So Important



When it comes to real estate, people usually shout out the mantra: location, location, location. When it comes to web real estate, you could say the same thing: location, location, location in search engines. Organic real estate on the web refers to the positioning your website has on the web landscape. A solid organic real estate design and SEO strategy will make a website as necessary a destination as the corner market. In short, organic real estate keeps a website from languishing unseen in cyberspace.

So how does Organic Real Estate work? What makes Organic Real estate, well, organic? The main feature of Organic Real Estate is quality, informative content. This is what sets quality SEO plans apart from those that are merely trying to trick search engine spiders. Content should be natural, not written as if composed by a machine. Natural, well-written web content will increase page rank at a faster rate than content that is written only with keywords in mind.

This is especially important for web entrepreneurs who run affiliate sites. Web surfers are getting savvy to the fact that many affiliate sites are just a dummy site set-up to "hopefully" bring in some sales. Experienced affiliate marketers know that you can make a site that is as competitive, and useful, as the affiliate's host site. The more quality content there is on your site, the better an affiliate site can separate itself from the crowded web marketplace.

But Organic Real Estate is about a lot more than content—and this is where a lot of SEO plans fall short. In addition to providing content, a site owner must determine a target audience. In one way, content and target audience go hand in hand. You have to figure out target audience and tailor content accordingly. In addition, you may have a different target audience for different products or services offered on your site. Content and keyword targeting must be tailored to each potential type of client and customer.

Without these strategies, what will you have: a site that looks more like a link-factory than a trusted resource in a particular industry. In the past, people stressed the need for quality web design. While this is no doubt important, it is now much easier for amateur's to design a high-quality looking site. It is far less easy for site owners to provide fresh and useful content. You'll find a bevy of nice-looking sites with little or nothing to offer in terms of content. In Web 2.0, content is what separates the great from the mediocre, and the organic from the artificial.

What To Look For In An Affiliate Partner



Affiliate websites are one of the fastest growing wings of e-commerce. You can literally find thousands of affiliate partnerships to choose from. This is both good and bad news. The good news is that there are great affiliate deals to be found online that haven't yet been over-saturated by partnerships. The bad news is that there are affiliate partners out there that you shouldn't touch with a virtual ten-foot pole.

There are a number of steps you should take before signing up with an affiliate partner. First, you should read the affiliates terms and conditions. Too often, budding marketers skip over an affiliates terms. An affiliate partner may not allow for Google Adwords or other marketing avenues so make sure this is not explicitly laid out in the affiliates terms and conditions. If there are no terms of service, this should be a warning in itself. A reputable affiliate will normally have terms of service.

Payment is obviously a huge one. Make sure the affiliate has reasonable terms. Some affiliates, such as Amazon, only pay out after a set number of sales—you do not make a dime on the first, second, or even tenth sale. Other affiliates will pay out for each sale. The flip side is that an affiliate with a sales minimum may also have a better percentage payout. The best-case scenario is to find an affiliate partner that pays out for every sale and offers a good percentage.

This will be all for naught if the affiliate does not pay out in a timely manner. Try and not learn from experience, in other words, don't get burned. Instead, learn from other people's experience. Go to affiliate marketing forums to see if a particular affiliate has a good or bad reputation. The trouble here is that a new affiliate might not have a marketer base yet, and these affiliates usually offer the most attractive terms in order to bring affiliates in. Use some common sense—if the affiliate's site is well designed and they offer a good and useful product, you could try and test the waters.

On that front, it is sometimes a good idea to find an affiliate partner that is not overly saturated. If you offer a service that can't be found on every other web page, it can lead to a better sales rate. However, once again there's a flip side: if it's a virtually unknown site, it's harder to build up buyer's trust, as compared to well-known affiliate programs like Amazon or the Discover card. A lot of the onus falls on you—if your site is well designed and well managed, buyers will trust your affiliate links.