Super Affiliate Marketing

I blogged a couple days ago about the Wynn Las Vegas page I created in Squidoo and promised to update the squidoo rankings here. I am pleasantly surprised to announce that it (previously ranked at #2,619 in the travel category and #85,206 overall) has risen to #255 in the travel category and #13798 overall practically overnight!

I’m guessing this first rise is the easiest and it might be tougher to move up further but I’m committed to trying it out. So far, I have blogged about the post here on this site, I have pinged technorati about this blog (it won’t let me ping directly about the squidoo page) and I have joined several travel groups on squidoo. Now i’m going to start twittering about the page and get a few friends to help review it and see if we can’t break the top 100. More to come…

From previous posts you may know about our latest project, Reservation Counter. The site contains over 70,000 hotel properties and we are working hard to make it SEO friendly. Lots of sitemaps, blogging, hubpages (squidoo, facebook etc.) in order to get links to every hotel. I am very curious to hear feedback from those who have worked on mega sites and how best to optimize / map them for google. We are creating a site map footer with the most popular hotel groupings (by city, by chain etc.) but will limit it to about 50 links, the rest of the homepage has another 20 to 30 which should keep us under the magic 100 number we’ve heard should be the limit.

I gave some squidoo examples yesterday, here is another created by a colleague for the Bellagio Resort Las Vegas. We would love feedback on the user experience of reservation counter so please test it out and let us know if you find any bugs, what you like, what you don’t etc. Thanks in advance!

How many of you are already using Squidoo and other such pages as seo tools?

I’ve played around with web 2.0 sites as a source of backlinks for a while but just recently decided to take it seriously. I would love to hear feedback from those already further down this road. Here are a pair of squidoo sites that I’ve been working on today, Wynn Las Vegas & Laguna Bacalar.

Ultimately I don’t intend to spend so much time building out these lenses one at a time. The idea is to get a system in place that easily shows others how to replicate what I’m doing and outsource this new form of link-building overseas. Currently the Wynn Las Vegas page is ranked at #2,619 in the travel category and #85,206 overall. I will update here as the ranking improves and list what techniques were used to enhance the ranking. Thus far i’ve added lots of pictures and joined some related community groups. I’ve rated other users in the same vertical and requested a few reviews/ratings from colleagues.

I am excited to announce that we are starting a new “mastermind group” that will be meeting weekly in the Partner Fusion offices in Utah (8831 S. Redwood Road Suite D). I realize there will be many of you screaming at us for not doing this as a tele-seminar or video-conference but I really do want this first group to meet in person and benefit from the synergy that creates. Perhaps, down the road we will do this on a larger scale and move it online or via phone.

Anyway, roughly 20 invitations have already been sent out to hand picked experts who each have different strengths they can bring to the table. I’m anxiously awaiting feedback from these first invitees to determine a day and time each week to hold the meetings. Once a day and time has been selected we will open it up for a few more sign-ups via this website…but not yet and probably only a couple of spaces as we want to keep this first group small in size.

So why Join a mastermind group?

The concept of the Mastermind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900’s. In his timeless classic, “Think And Grow Rich” he wrote about the Mastermind principle as:

“The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”

He continues …

“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

In a Mastermind Group, the agenda belongs to the group, and each person’s participation is key. Your peers give you feedback, help you brainstorm new possibilities, and set up accountability structures that keep you focused and on track. You will create a community of supportive colleagues who will brainstorm together to move the group to new heights.

You’ll gain tremendous insights, which can improve your business and personal life. Your Mastermind Group is like having a objective board of directors.

What Will You Get From It?

• Experience, skill and confidence
• Real progress in your business and personal life
• An instant and valuable support network
• A sense of shared endeavor - there are others out there!
• Design things to be the way you want them to be, not as you’ve been told they “should” be

This mastermind group will eventually cover topics all over the internet marketing realm but to begin we will be testing some new seo techniques. If you are interested simply reply to this post and I’ll make more information available soon. Thanks,

Ryan Williams
Partner Fusion | www.partnerfusion.com
rwilliams@partnerfusion.com

I returned last night from a conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. We do a substantial amount of business with the MGM Hotel chain and each year they bring us down to discuss their plans for the upcoming season. They have someone present about each hotel, each show, each restaurant etc. in regards to their desired demographics, any updates or changes. It is an interesting meeting and fun to watch how the city keeps re-inventing itself. Last year they told us was the first time in decades that non-gaming revenue surpassed gaming revenue - amazing! The trend in Vegas seems to be nightclubs and lounges right now and of course the huge new city center project. They put us up in the MGM signature (30th floor penthouses) and I have to admit they are quite impressive (as nice as the Wynn suites or nicer).

Today is Day 2 of the mastermind group conference with Russell Brunson here in Boise, Idaho. I feel a little out of my element since most of the group members are in the informational / biz opp space and I’m more use to traditional cpa affiliate marketing conferences like affiliate summit. Speaking of which, my business partner, Ryan McCoy, is in Boston right now with a few others from Partner Fusion, (Karen White, our VP of Business Development is speaking). We decided to split up so I could speak up here while the rest of them headed out to Boston. Boise isn’t quite Boston and I won’t be catching the game at Fenway tonight but this has been a great trip. Some of the tools I’ve learned about on this trip and will be testing over the next little bit include: Traffic Geiser, Comment Kahuna and viral inviter.

Have you ever had a great idea? Did you implement it or did you eventually forget about it? Partner Fusion has just released the beta version of a free online software tool to flush out good ideas and turn them into actionable items. You can test it out now at Free Brainstorm

A common challenge for affiliates is building a site that rises above the affiliate noise.  The first sites that I built for University of Phoenix were mediocre at best.  I recently received an e-mail from Jeremy Palmer where he talks about a shift in strategy and launching a new site.  As I looked at his e-mail and checked out the new design I found it was done by a SitePoint Design Contest.  As I dug deeper I was blown away.  Here is how it works:

You create a site creative brief.  You provide all the specs for your project.  You can choose from logo design, web page design (coded), banner ad design, stationary design, print design, etc.  After you’ve created what you are looking for you set a price you are willing to pay for the winning design.  Folks these prices are reasonable.  Jeremy paid $1,000 for his and had 53 submissions.  There were many that were very good.  I’ve paid Logoworks to design several logos and have been less than impressed with the quality that I’ve seen.

So if you are looking for an edge in getting that sweetheart deal, start by getting a quality site, with a quality design.  Rise above the noise!

Partner Fusion (http://www.partnerfusion.com) has opened a new office within Latin America (Guatemala) to focus on it’s increasing number of clients from the region. The bio of the new CEO for Partner Fusion America Latina is listed below in spanish.

Zel Giron, CEO Partner Fusion América Latina Mercadologo, con estudios en Publicidad y Ciencias de la Comunicación de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala y Estudios en Comercio Internacional. Trabajo por mas de 8 años en el mercado de la publicidad y los medios de comunicación masiva en Guatemala. Es socio Fundador de varias empresas, entre ellas; Quality Re Print, QualityToner, epyme.net, EspcialHost.com, mitintaya.com entre otras. Con varios años investigando y desarrollando negocios en internet. Actualmente es CEO de PartnerFusion América Latina, Filial de PartnerFusion Inc. Empresa dedicada al Marketing Online y es el responsable de la misma para el Mercado de habla Hispana.

Just stumbled across this interesting viral marketing article. It begins with a simple but quality definition of viral marketing:

 Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence.

The article then proceeds to outline 6 key principles (using the classic Hotmail.com example)

1. Gives away products or services
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others
3. Scales easily from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
6. Takes advantage of others’ resources