Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

Running your own blog is easy… creating an authority blog and one that makes money is another! Yes, everyone talks about the power of blogging and how it can make you rich or how it can provide you with exposure to people all over the world and even create a new life and business of it’s own. Yes… all of this is possible through blogging, but only if you live, eat and breath it!

With millions of new blogs going live every day, the odds of your blog standing out from the crowd is pretty slim to none. You need to find a niche and simply kill it! Keep generating amazing content, give quality stuff away for free that others would charge you for, and show that you know what you are talking about and put yourself out there to help others… all of these efforts combined, and you may become one of the next top brands and authorities in blogging.

Not to brag, but I’ve put everything into my business and online marketing efforts for over the past 15 years. When I launched my own blog, usually my own name, I had to do the same exact thing. Now five years later and the blog is still killing it and my brand is growing more and more everything.

Please don’t take this post as a means to brag, but instead to impress upon you the sheer power of what is possible through your determined efforts when combined with blogging. Whether you are looking to make money from blogging or just want to create awareness around your passion or even become a voice within your community… it’s all possible through blogging. In this post I’m going to cover just a small fraction of what I’ve been able to accomplish since launching my own blog back in 2007.

I’ve Created a Brand of My Own

For anyone that has been following the blog for a while now, you know that the design and concept is always focused on the “Zac Johnson” toon, which has been great for branding over the years. With the dollar sign shirt, the crown and the personalization of the toon, it’s the perfect way to brand myself and make a lasting impression. Even though the blog has had several blog redesigns over the past five years, the focus on the toon has always remained the same, which always continues to build on the lasting branding and impression made to visitors of the blog.

Make sure to read one of the posts I’ve written over at BloggingTips.com that walks you through the process of how to create a logo for your site. It’s actually much easier and cheaper than you think! The best way to start branding your site and making a name for yourself, is to start on day one!

“Zac Johnson” – As Seen on ABC News

What’s the price of getting coverage on a national television station like ABC News? Simply put… Priceless! Less than two years ago I made my first television appearance on ABC News on the Tory Johnson’s Job Club show. It was pretty cool to visit ABC Studios in New York City and get a behind the scenes look at what everyone else is seeing when they are watching television at home. Once again, this was all possible due to the exposure I’ve received through ZacJohnson.com.

Speaking at Conferences Around the World

One of the best ways to build a name for yourself, is through speaking at conferences and events in your area. The first conference I ever attended was CJU 2000 in California, then the first event I spoke at was during Affiliate Force 2000, which was an internet marketing cruise. Since then I’ve spoken at many well known conferences and events such as Affiliate Summit, SES NY, BlogWorld and even did a keynote in Australia for AffiliateSyd. As you continue to speak at more conferences and build a name for yourself, this will lead to more invitations and paid speaking positions… which leads to even more networking, contacts and business.

Free Products, Passes and Services

When you have a popular web site or blog that companies and people want to get exposure on, they may give you special deals, free passes to conferences and many times they will provide you with free versions of their software or memberships to their sites in exchange for a review. For anyone that already has a popular marketing blog, you probably already know what I mean. Many times you can get a free conference pass to internet marketing conferences just for applying for a free guest pass. This in itself can save you a few hundred dollars!

Winning Massive Contests and Promotions

Blogging can open up a lot of door ways and opportunities you may not even think about. In addition to continually being offered free / trial accounts to paid membership programs, software and other services, you can also enter a lot of contests and promotions that are only open to bloggers. Since going live with the blog, I’ve won a decent amount of contests and promotions I’ve participated in… winning such promotions as a all inclusive vacation to the Dominican Republic, tickets to Elite Retreat, Apple products, conference passes and much more. However, one of the most interesting things I’ve learned over the years from entering and participating in blogging contests and promotions… is that people are just too lazy to enter! Which in the end helps my chances of winning!

Building Amazing New Partnerships and Contacts

On top of everything else mentioned, you then have all of the contacts and new people you will meet through your blog. As many people as you think you may know, there are hundreds of not thousands of people who visit your blog every day and know who you are. This has been all too familiar from when I attend internet marketing conferences and people will come up to me out of no where and say they read the blog. You really never know who is reading your blog! It’s quite exciting and always a thrill to meet your readers in person.

Just from attending different marketing and blogging events over the years I’ve been able to network and meet (and become close friends with many) with not only some of the top people in the online marketing space, but also big name celebrities and bloggers like Marc Cuban, Pete Cashmore, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jalen Rose and many more.

You Need to Get a Blog of Your Own

Now just imagine if I stayed a quite affiliate marketer and just kept running my ad campaigns and minding my own business. Sure, this is a working model and a great way to make money, but look at all of the opportunities I would have missed out on had I not started my own blog… not to mention whatever will come out of the blog in the many years to come.

The bottom line is, this blog now has almost over 1,000 posts now is a massive resource and continues to grow every day. I get new emails and readers every day, and who knows what tomorrow will hold.

In all seriousness, growing a blog to the size of 1,000 posts and creating an authority site like this blog is today is no joke. It takes a ton of time, research, dedication and drive… and you can’t look ahead and try to rush the process.

If you don’t currently have a blog of your own, it’s so crucial that you get started today. It doesn’t matter if you are an affiliate marketer or a grandmother at home who would like to write about cats! Blogging is simple and can be whatever you want it to be. To make the process even more simple, you can even use my free blog installation service and get setup right away without the need to know how to install a blog or setup a domain name.

Here’s to the future of blogging and I hope you are ready for when the next opportunity comes knocking on your blogging door!

Is your blog currently in a rut?

Are you looking for that one creative way to massively grow your blog and online business this year?

Look no further, because the answer is here. And as you’ve probably guessed, mobile is that answer.

The rate at which mobile usage is growing every year is stunning, and I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of a few years before mobile internet dominates standard internet usage completely; I know that sounds bold, but I have solid data to back it up.

Mobile Internet is Exploding Now, and You Need to Catch On!

Yeah, mobile internet is really exploding right now.

In the past few years alone, mobile internet has experienced such a huge growth that it has been predicted that mobile internet usage will take over desktop internet usage in 2014. Yes read that again; it means 2 years from now.

If that wasn’t enough, you’ll be surprised to hear that mobile payment firm Square, has experienced a significant growth of over 25% in the past month. That’s a 25% growth in only one month, leading to an additional $1b+ in yearly revenue.

If you reread the above paragraphs, and you try to verify the data they’re linked to, you’ll notice they both have one thing in common: mobile. Both of the above facts prove that mobile is exploding, and right now is the time for bloggers to start venturing into it.

Of course, it wouldn’t be too late tomorrow, but those who capitalize on the opportunity now will reap the rewards forever.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here are 3 creative ways to use mobile to grow your blog today.

1. Create QR Codes for Your Blog, and Start Marketing Your QR Code like Hell

Do you know what the next best thing since mobile is? It’s QR codes!

Fun fact you should know: 14 million mobile users scanned a QR code in June 2011; that’s 14 million people, in only one month, and for a new technology, too. You should expect that number to have doubled now.

What is a QR code?

A QR code, also known as Quick Response code, is a two-dimensional barcode that can be read using smartphones and dedicated reading devices, that link directly to text, URLs, emails, and phone numbers.

In other words, instead of having to remember thelongesturlinthewholewideworld.com, you just have to scan that simple image and you’re taken there. It’s that simple.

QR codes are booming right now, and it works in such a fancy way that everyone with a QR reading device wants to use it.

Create special QR codes for individual pages on your blog, your homepage, and other important aspects of your blog and you just saved your readers a few seconds of their time, which can add up on the long run.

How Can QR codes grow your blog?

QR codes are very popular and fancy, and a good way to expose your blog to a new audience.

A lot of people would probably never care about your blog, but you can get them to care by creating a QR code.

Print your QR codes on paper, give it out to people as flyers, stick it on popular notices and sign boards, and submit it to a QR code directory – that’s one smart way to grow your blog with QR codes!

2. Create the Best Mobile Design, and Distribute it Online

Yep, this is just like creating a very unique theme and submitting it to CSS galleries, other than the fact that themes are pretty much common these days.

Quality mobile designs are rare, and people just go for the generic designs lately. Create the best mobile design you’ve ever seen, and make sure it speaks a lot about your brand.

Create awareness about your mobile design, how you came about the idea, what it took to get it done, and how you plan for it to evolve in the future.

Peers in your industry will see this and blog about it, and some people will even come to you for recommendations about a good designer.

Doing the above alone won’t be enough, so you have to take it further. Once your mobile design is ready, start submitting it to dozens of mobile design galleries, and word will spread from there.

This alone will lead to additional hundreds or thousands of visitors daily, and word will spread from there.

Of course, you might not get the best kind of traffic, but you can expect a few of the visitors you get to stick; hundred additional quality readers to your blog a month for free, just for having a good design doesn’t hurt. Now, does it?

3. Create a Mobile App

Do you know the cool thing about apps? It’s that they can help your business grow exponentially.

iTunes is currently one of the biggest mobile directories in the world today, and the Android marketplace recently surpassed 500,000 downloads in a day.

These are cool opportunities you can capitalize on.

A few dozen additional visitors a day from iTunes wouldn’t hurt, and when you add more to it from the Android and Blackberry marketplaces, it’s only a matter of time before the traffic becomes significant.

Create the best mobile apps that make it easier for your readers to get more of you, submit the apps to iTunes and other app directories, get your readers to use them and rate you highly, and expect huge traffic increases for your blog as a matter of time.

What Do You think of the above Creative Ideas?

Of course, none of these ideas is groundbreaking, but you don’t need groundbreaking ideas to succeed online.

You only need ideas that work. And the ideas above work.

What do you think about the above ideas? Do you have any more mobile ideas that can help your blog grow?

This guest post is written by Paul T, an expert at helping people get SIM only plans.