- I don't do much keyword research, but I think of what is popular, what people want and what people want to buy. I tried using Google's keyword tool for adwords, but since they made some major changes to it, everything's messed up and it mostly shows the wrong data.
- I'd suggest to install useless plugins that takes extra load in your site. Here's my active plugins that I'm currently using:
Akismet
Auto Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (this is a MUST)
BackupBuddy
Google XML Sitemaps v3 for qTranslate
WordPress SEO (by YOAST)
WHAT TYPE OF THEME TO USE?
I've experimented with so many different themes. I also tried moving the sidebar to the left side and main content to the right of the page. This didn't convert much because most people focus on the things that on the left first and then right. So, I tried another theme that has main content on the left and and sidebar on the right. It has LOTS of white spaces, very simple and clean. This is the current theme layout I'm using, and I think these kind of themes convert the most. So, choose the theme that's simple, clean with lots of white spaces and easy to navigate.
HOW MANY ARTICLES PER DAY?
As my site is 'news' type of site, my site needs to be updated daily with fresh information. So, I update it daily and you should too because some search engines loves the sites that gives daily fresh information.
HOW I PROMOTE
I don't do much promotion. But I use tools to get more retweets, fb share and more Google plus ones. I've ONLY 2 ARTICLES that has amazon affiliate links in it and it get about 4,000 visits daily on each. Sometimes, I lose my rank so the traffic drops by 60 to 70% but when I regain my rankings eventually the traffic becomes constant. I've also been using IMT social bookmark tool. I'm sure it's helping to improve my rankings.
WHERE'S THE TRAFFIC COMING FROM?
90% traffic from search engines, 4% from social media sites, and 6% other referral sites.
THINGS TO BE AVARE OF
I see lots of people are getting banned from amazon associates simple they didn't read their Operating Agreement (OA). They simply ban you for not following their one simple thing that's mentioned on the OA. For example, you MUST NOT mention the product price in your post. They could BAN YOU if you do this and they don't pay you no matter how much you've earned till now. So, it's worth to spend an hour to read their agreement carefully. Trust me.
This is the exact step I followed, and THERE'S NO SECRET AT ALL.
NOW, what you're thinking is "Oh, this is too time consuming and may not worth it". THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT BEFORE I MADE A CENT FROM AMAZON. AND THAT'S WHY I CALLED THIS AN 'ACCIDENTAL FORTUNE'. NOW IT'S BEEN ABOUT 2 MONTHS AND MY TOTAL EARNINGS TILL NOW IS OVER $11,000. SO, GO DON'T WAIT FOR A MIRACLE TO HAPPEN, MAKE THEM HAPPEN YOURSELF!
Thanks for the tips about making YT videos, Nemanja. I may consider them in future.