HOW TO CREATE A VIRAL MARKETING MACHINE FOR ANY AFFILIATE

David Seitz 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.
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