Affiliate marketers and SEO experts are two different animals feeding off the same carcass. And while they are different, that doesn’t mean they can’t share some of the same techniques – especially the ones the work.
In a recent article published at ShoeMoney.com Lisa Barone shares 5 Lessons Affiliates Can Learn From SEOs. Lisa is “Chief Branding Officer” of Outspoken Media.
In a nutshell, the 5 things are
- Branding is important – turn yourself into a brand – even Google is giving more prominence to brands.
- Focus on providing Content – as lisabarone says, “Make your site a resource by writing how tos, by providing answers, and by giving your audience a place to connect around a certain topic. You know, the type of content that helps to build a brand.”
- Have a Plan for tomorrow – Don’t just focus on today. Think about where you wnat to be in 5 years, 10 years, and build within that framework. In other words, think about your brand.
- Don’t rely on Google – If you think those lessons you learned two or three years ago about getting an “avalanche of traffic” from Google are going to sustain your business, think again. Things have changed. You need alternative sources of traffic. Branding and pushing your brand through social media are the best answer currently available.
- Develop your Street Smarts – Know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em. This may be something successful entrepreneurs just have – from birth, so to speak. If you don’t have it, maybe you should consider some other line of work.
The irony here is that SEO practitioners are not discovering anything new. They could have learned all these lesson from traditional marketers. The rapid growth of social media is, in an important sense, a return to more traditional ways of interacting with real people. Yes the media are different, but the objectives are essentially the same.
In fact the rise of social media spells the eventual end of the SEO-dominated era of the last 10 years or so. This is a good thing which even Google recognizes and is endorsing, willingly or otherwise.
