HOW TO CREATE A VIRAL MARKETING MACHINE FOR ANY AFFILIATE

By David Seitz
Posted Sunday, October 10, 2004

Wow, that's a powerful title! Don't let the headline fool you though, this could be the most important article you ever read. If done correctly this is one the easiest ways to create a permanent revenue stream with ANY affiliate program you are promoting.

Have you taken notice that some of the most popular types of web sites on the internet are portal (or vortal) web sites? These portals, or should we say web site vortals (vertical portals) are really nothing more than an organized collection of links to other web sites.

Why are they so popular, and more importantly why are they so successful?

One of the biggest reasons they are popular is because they save visitors time. We all know time is very easy to waste on the internet. A visitor to a vortal does not have to go through tedious search engine listings to find what they are looking for anymore, it's all right there sorted and stored for them at their favorite vortal web site.

Let me tell you a little story before we get deeper into this since it fits right in with this article. It's also a prime example of why these sites are so successful.

Last week I was searching for information on a motorcycle... specifically pricing info. I wanted to see what kind of price fluctuations there were from state to state. Well to make a long story short, while I was searching I wondered upon a few vortal sites geared to the motorcycle community. These sites actually had everything I was looking for and more... I even ended up buying from a couple of their resources and they both ended up in my bookmarks for future visits.

No fancy graphics, no amazing flash animations just good solid "targeted" content.

To follow along here are the two web sites I ended up spending some time at:

(http://www.moto-directory.com/) (http://www.motorcyclerow.com)
(Don't worry we are going to get to explaining how all of this is going to help you increase your internet revenue!)

Visit the first web site moto-directory.com and what do you see?

Let's put it all into perspective:

1. A large "searchable" categorized listing of motorcycle resources and vendors.
2. Advertisers with products and services geared to the motorcycle industry.
3. Affiliate bookstore geared to motorcycle users. 4. Affiliated classified ad system and auction. 5. Automated directory system.

Actually this vortal is owned and operated by motorcycleshopper.com so I am sure you can see the big picture here... they realize the community a vertical portal brings sells products and produces advertising revenue!

So, what do we have to work with here...

If you created and operated a vortal site what would you have to look forward to:

1. The searchable categorized listings make it as easy as possible for a visitor to find what they are looking for and almost guarantees your site gets bookmarked.

2. Once a vortal becomes popular advertisers flock to it because they know they will find "targeted" traffic. Not only can you produce a solid advertising revenue stream but you can also advertise your own affiliate programs especially if they are geared to the web sites category.

3. The fact that the system is totally automated is a big fat bonus! What if related web sites visited and build your directory for you, isn't that enough reason to stop what you are doing right now and start on the framework for your own vertical portal web site?

Vortals are geared to one subject and visitors love it!

All Content is geared to the vortals theme. All advertising is geared to the vortals content. All resources are related to the vortals content. All in all a vortal is a perfect targeted community

$$$$ Cha-Ching!

Ok we all see the big picture here but how do we put a vertical portal to work for an affiliate program?

Easy...

Create a portal on a topic related to the affiliate programs you are promoting and funnel the buyers in!

* FIRST YOU NEED A THEME & A DOMAIN NAME:

So let's find out what type of portal we can create.

Many of you may already know me as the Affiliate Marketing Director for Net Detective: (http://www.jeanharris.com/associate/) Many affiliates have been following along with this article and creating some killer revenue machines. As an example of an affiliate front here are a few ideas for a front end portal for Net Detective:
(Remember,in this example the goal is to sell net detective so we need to find a theme and content geared to the product.)

1: A spy resources directory 2: An Investigation resource center 3: An adoption/genealogy resource center 4: A directory of location services 5: A search resource directory 6: Employee Investigation resource directory 7: Spy or investigation software resource center etc., etc....

As you can see this can easily turn into a really powerful marketing machine that will work for you 24 hours a day. You can build a vortal for any type of affiliate program you are promoting.

You will definitely need a new domain name for this project and here are four resources to help:

For 13.50 per year this is the lowest domain registration service I have seen (http://www.000domains.com)

If you need help coming up with a good domain name use these three resources to search for available names. 1. (http://www.nameboy.com/) 2. (http://whois.net)
3. (http://hammer.prohosting.com/~domains/cgi-bin/main.shtml)

* SECOND, YOU NEED A SYSTEM:

Fortunately for us there are several ready made directory systems available on-line to help us quickly get our new vertical portal up and running.

Links Manager v2.0 - create your own directory or index like Yahoo, Snap or Dmoz. Includes sophisticated administrative tool and it's automated: (http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/links/index.htm)

Index Finger Pro Edition - Produces a clean and professional directory using html pages. Unlimited categories and sub-categories, supports ad banners, search, site requests, mailing list, site rating, what's new and cool pages, plus more. (http://www.indexfinger.com/)

Web Index v1 - With WebIndex you can start a search engine that works very much like Yahoo or CGI-Resources. With the web-based admin area you can build up the directories, edit/remove directories, verify/edit/remove links and much more. Automatically updated What's New! page, advanced search and the best part is: the layout of the pages are totally customizable.
(http://cgi-center.cx/scripts/webindex.html)

You can find many more directory systems at Cgi-Resources Here is the direct link to the links indexing category: (http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Link_Indexing_Scripts/)

* THIRD, YOU WILL NEED A MARKETING PLAN:

Again we can help! We have a large amount of material to help you get your new portal in front of as many eyeballs as you can at a Helping Hands resource center.

The goal of your portal should be to provide a one stop resource for your selected category and focus on selling your product or promtoing your affiliate programs.

If you work your affiliate program banners, links, classifieds etc. into your sites framework you will be surprised at how successful your new venture could become. When you produce targeted traffic your sales will only rise. Just think, every single visitor to your new portal is a potential customer! Talk about targeting huh?

There is a ton of marketing material online for you to take advantage of in The Helping Hand newsletter and marketing center: (http://www.helpinghand-newsletter.com)

About the Author
David Seitz - CEO Virtual Imagination Inc. Published by: Virtual Imagination Inc. Brought to you by The Helping Hand Internet Marketing Newsletter. (http://www.helpinghand-newsletter.com) grab your free subscription now: mailto:subscribe@associatesearch.com