How to promote a diet affiliate site on forums and blogs without spamming

26 replies
Hi,

To be able to generate some income while learning more, I decided I would start up simple in IM with the creation of an affiliate site. After browsing through Clickbank products, I picked a specific diet that has good monthly searches without too much competition.

I put some articles from ezinearticls up there, including an article linking to my product and some additional recipes, rewritten.

A lot of people suggested forum and blog advertising to drive traffic as a main source of visitors. However, I wonder what is the best way to do this, without being considered as spam. What are the best ways to get your site out there, without resorting to spam? Signatures in forums are in my opinion the best idea, but a lot of forums have signatures disabled. And how would I go about getting my website out there on blogs? How would i go from commenting on a simple blog entry to linking my website? Maybe I'm a bit too skeptical by thinking people actually passionate about the diet will not be interested in a combination of some articles..

Any information or experience with forum / blog marketing would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
#affiliate #blogs #diet #forums #promote #site #spamming
  • Profile picture of the author Brains Gone Wild
    Hmmm.......tough niche to crack. You're playing in a very competitive space. I have no experience in what you're calling forum marketing (signature marketing, etc) but blogging works well with almost any niche/offer but it can take forever. Do you have any money (even a small budget) to throw at it? Direct media buys and ad space on related sites would work well, I'm sure. I'm playing with a CB diet offer right now, as well. I've had decent results with social media but not in a conventional way. I've created a couple FB pages and focused (spare time) on growing the fans/likes to build a social audience. Keep in touch and hopefully I'll have a success blueprint for you Hope this helps - Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author ronorr
    blogging with the content and long tail keywords while going to fiverr to get some backlinks can get you some top rankings for long tail right away.
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    • Profile picture of the author Subseven
      Originally Posted by ronorr View Post

      blogging with the content and long tail keywords while going to fiverr to get some backlinks can get you some top rankings for long tail right away.
      I've heard negative advice when it comes to backlinking for websites through Fiverr...

      Originally Posted by brains gone wild

      Hmmm.......tough niche to crack. You're playing in a very competitive space. I have no experience in what you're calling forum marketing (signature marketing, etc) but blogging works well with almost any niche/offer but it can take forever. Do you have any money (even a small budget) to throw at it?
      It's a specialized diet, meaning the focus keyword and competitors are lower than for the more general diet; in my mind my main competitors are other sites for this particular diet, since that's what people are searching for. I feel like blogging works well, but I don't really feel like I have a lot of knowledge (or good enough, anyway) about the subject to write stuff on other people's blogs.

      I don't really have the intention of making this "big", as I am not really experienced enough in this niche to have enough knowledge of what a real good site would be, but I think I'm in the right direction. It's just that I want to market it without making people angry or annoyed.

      Facebook might be a good idea, how do you "market" your FB page though, I'd think you'd get the same issues when trying to market your conventional website. I want to keep my personal FB and IM stuff seperated as well, but of course you can always make an extra account for such things.

      Thanks for your stories so far!
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    • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
      Originally Posted by ronorr View Post

      blogging with the content and long tail keywords while going to fiverr to get some backlinks can get you some top rankings for long tail right away.
      Spammed backlinks from fiverr? Brilliant.
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  • Profile picture of the author qadar
    Maybe you can do same paid advertising. Go to fiverr and find some seller who are doing advertising on their website. Find suitable website to promote your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Share unique content on diet forums. Write it specifically for key conversations on the forum. You're still advertising but you're advertising the IDEA of your product instead of doing a hard sell.
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    • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
      Providing value always helps:

      *answering questions
      *providing suggestions
      *recommending a solution
      *adding a bit of personality
      *responding to good comments / adding more
      *sharing stories

      There will always be people who think you are 'spamming' regardless of what you are doing.

      Just go with your gut and help others out
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      • Profile picture of the author Subseven
        Originally Posted by jamescanz View Post

        Providing value always helps:

        *answering questions
        *providing suggestions
        *recommending a solution
        *adding a bit of personality
        *responding to good comments / adding more
        *sharing stories

        There will always be people who think you are 'spamming' regardless of what you are doing.

        Just go with your gut and help others out
        I'd want to, but the problem in my opinion for this are:
        *I'd be putting in time for work, seeing as traffic from forum replies will only be significant in the time they are at the top. I'd be getting my name out there, though, which is good. It's a good way, nonetheless.
        *I don't really have enough knowledge to actually give (in my opinion) quality advice.

        What I have in mind is this: when visiting forums for the specific diet, I think the info I have and provide on the site is very general and not specialized enough. I think most people on those specific niche community sites know everything there is I can tell them about the diet. Instead, I will try to find general weight loss forums / blogs, and advertise the diet (which is a general diet, not my product specifically) as a whole, adding my site as a database of info and refer them there. Is this a good idea?
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      • Profile picture of the author Sweely99
        Originally Posted by jamescanz View Post

        Providing value always helps:

        *answering questions
        *providing suggestions
        *recommending a solution
        *adding a bit of personality
        *responding to good comments / adding more
        *sharing stories

        There will always be people who think you are 'spamming' regardless of what you are doing.

        Just go with your gut and help others out
        This guy speaks the truth. Provide value and you'll be amazed at your success.

        My tip: use Google Alerts to get notified whenever a forum thread on the web related to your niche gets created.

        Create an account on the forum, with a signature containing your link, and answer the original question as good as you can. Act like you're an expert of some kind and people will view you as an authority.

        Yahoo! Answers is also a great site for this. I've been getting loads of visitors from there. The key is to provide value. Your content really needs to stand out, otherwise your questions will be regarded as spam and you're back at square one.

        If your answers are good - people will buy stuff from you. You could be making money tonight.
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        • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
          Originally Posted by Sweely99 View Post

          This guy speaks the truth. Provide value and you'll be amazed at your success.
          Right back at ya Sweely99

          Originally Posted by Sweely99 View Post

          My tip: use Google Alerts to get notified whenever a forum thread on the web related to your niche gets created.

          Yahoo! Answers is also a great site for this. I've been getting loads of visitors from there. The key is to provide value. Your content really needs to stand out, otherwise your questions will be regarded as spam and you're back at square one.
          You make 2 awesome points.

          Google alerts + Yahoo answers is exactly how I drive 100% of my traffic in one specific affiliate niche. I answer the questions, relate to them, and recommend an article to their solution

          .

          Subseven there are plenty of resources online that will give simple tips to help lose weight / change around your diet / etc.

          So even though you might not have a ton of knowledge about the subject, you can definitely help out. Here's some examples for someone looking for help to lose weight

          -Eat smaller more frequent meals
          -Get a small portion of protein in with each meal
          -Park farther away
          -Walk for 15 minutes a day
          -Every day walk for a little bit more than the previous session
          -Cut back or reduce sweets / sugar / soda
          -If getting into exercise, start off with 3 days a week
          -Get a friend to help keep you accountable ...etc

          These are just examples of things that came off the top of my head. The possibilities are endless ... but then again, being a personal trainer helps
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  • Profile picture of the author Subseven
    Awesome tip with the Google Alerts, thanks.
    I guess using a signature really is the best way to be able to give answers and not really seeming like you do it to advertise for forums. Yahoo answers actually is something I haven't thought of. Thinking outside of the box might really just be what is needed..

    Yeah Jamescanz, you are definitely right. I think it's also kind of my problem that I always look at things through my perspective, and I should realize that even if facts like that are dead obvious to me (which is, I guess, why I'm not fat, haha), they might not be for others.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheWPHowToBlog
    I must say, you have chosen good niche because people often search for diet plans and weight loss. I think it is most selling affiliate product.

    I would suggest you to do article marketing…guest blogging and do social media marketing plus PPC marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Hooper-Kelly
      Hi Subseven,

      With Pinterest having a high percentage of women followers (the group most interested in weight loss) and a strong focus on cooking and recipes, why not convert some of your recipes to Pinterest pins?

      Create one of the new Pinterest Business accounts for this and you'll be safe from charges of spamming.

      You can also re-purpose them for FaceBook.

      Warmest regards,

      Paul
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      If you want to stack the copywriting deck in your favor with tricks and hacks producing winners like: "$20K in three days" "650 sold" "30% conversion", then you might like to know I'm retiring and will spill the beans to two people. More info here.
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  • Profile picture of the author minimalseo
    If you are looking at long term steady success - time and effort commitment to build an authority site on the special diet niche, and good old natural manual seo.

    If you are looking to create an instant buzz to get you started : Paid Press Release and Media Buys.

    As for me, I do both! Both long term success that can hold you steady, and short term success that you can hold on to and steady the weather until calmer waters arrive are important - atleast in my book
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  • Profile picture of the author jpsween88
    I've personally done really well in this niche. There are so many amazing authors out there that can write about dieting, healthy eating, ect so there is a ton of room for growth and sales. Here's how I go about driving traffic.

    -Find a minimum of 3 articles per week to add to my site from directories (like you've done)
    -Write a minimum of 2 articles per week myself or hired
    -Put my articles in the directories for other people to use
    -Guest blog on related blogs
    -Talk daily on forums whether it is answering questions, making suggestions, or a clip of your article.

    These few things if you stick to a routine will easily start boosting your SEO rankings since your doing keyword research as well as provide a stable free way of driving traffic to your site.

    Last thing I would do is start building a list, promote something like 3 free 10 min & under recipes a week this will give you the opportunity to say "hey if you liked yesterdays dinner idea, here's a 500 more on discount from amazon grab it today" ... you get the idea I hope

    One other great thing that worked for me but had some cost is going to fiverr and hire someone to do a video or preparing a dinner or something.

    Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of where to start.
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    Please do not use your signature to promote affiliate/MLM programs

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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Originally Posted by Subseven View Post

    Hi,

    To be able to generate some income while learning more, I decided I would start up simple in IM with the creation of an affiliate site. After browsing through Clickbank products, I picked a specific diet that has good monthly searches without too much competition.

    I put some articles from ezinearticls up there, including an article linking to my product and some additional recipes, rewritten.

    A lot of people suggested forum and blog advertising to drive traffic as a main source of visitors. However, I wonder what is the best way to do this, without being considered as spam. What are the best ways to get your site out there, without resorting to spam? Signatures in forums are in my opinion the best idea, but a lot of forums have signatures disabled. And how would I go about getting my website out there on blogs? How would i go from commenting on a simple blog entry to linking my website? Maybe I'm a bit too skeptical by thinking people actually passionate about the diet will not be interested in a combination of some articles..

    Any information or experience with forum / blog marketing would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
    If you are going to add your affiliate link to your signature in some forums, this is not allowed.

    This forum will not allow you to do this if your signature is an affiliate link. If it is your own website and domain name and you are reviewing a product on that page, then that is allowed.

    Every forum that you visit and are thinking about adding your own website, read their forum rules first to see what is allowed and what isn't.
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  • Profile picture of the author Subseven
    Originally Posted by napoleonfirst View Post

    First off, you need to find posts that are relevant to the affiliate program you are promoting. And it is important to know something about the niche so as to write useful posts. Of course you have to include a link to your affiliate product in the signature.
    I am using my website as link, not the affiliate product. This way I can provide info, link to the affiliate product and offer them to subscribe.

    Originally Posted by jpsween88 View Post

    I've personally done really well in this niche. There are so many amazing authors out there that can write about dieting, healthy eating, ect so there is a ton of room for growth and sales. Here's how I go about driving traffic.

    -Find a minimum of 3 articles per week to add to my site from directories (like you've done)
    -Write a minimum of 2 articles per week myself or hired
    -Put my articles in the directories for other people to use
    -Guest blog on related blogs
    -Talk daily on forums whether it is answering questions, making suggestions, or a clip of your article.

    These few things if you stick to a routine will easily start boosting your SEO rankings since your doing keyword research as well as provide a stable free way of driving traffic to your site.

    Last thing I would do is start building a list, promote something like 3 free 10 min & under recipes a week this will give you the opportunity to say "hey if you liked yesterdays dinner idea, here's a 500 more on discount from amazon grab it today" ... you get the idea I hope

    One other great thing that worked for me but had some cost is going to fiverr and hire someone to do a video or preparing a dinner or something.

    Hopefully, this gives you a good idea of where to start.
    Awesome, thank you so much. I read your other thread on the advice for your friend, and actually followed your steps to select and build up to where I am now! A detailed question: how do you use the articles? Ezinearticles mentions that you can not change any info, so you'd have to add in an affiliate link the author added, and it will be clear that you didn't write anything. I suppose, if you keep the author credit there and also submit original content, people will value your site more than if you would just put articles from directories.

    I built a list with Aweber (first time, so I guess it's not optimal yet) offering a premium list of "winter recipes" as a reward for signing up. I suppose I should just try to add recipes weekly, but how do you add them? You can not simply copy other peoples recipes, can you?

    Originally Posted by Paul Hooper-Kelly View Post

    Hi Subseven,

    With Pinterest having a high percentage of women followers (the group most interested in weight loss) and a strong focus on cooking and recipes, why not convert some of your recipes to Pinterest pins?

    Create one of the new Pinterest Business accounts for this and you'll be safe from charges of spamming.
    Hi Paul, thanks for your insight! You certainly have a valid point, this will be something to look into in the near future. Thank you for your insight!
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    • Profile picture of the author jpsween88
      Originally Posted by Subseven View Post


      A detailed question: how do you use the articles? Ezinearticles mentions that you can not change any info, so you'd have to add in an affiliate link the author added, and it will be clear that you didn't write anything.
      Great question, I use the articles just for content. I do not attempt to sell anything on my blog post. So when I go to EZA lets say I find an article on "healthy herbal teas" I would start off by searching for an article that I personally enjoyed reading. After that it is as easy as copy & pasting to your site. Give the author credit, they deserve it.

      Now that you have content, go to guest blogs and forums and try to re-post the article you just found (still giving the original author credit) but instead of using a link to EZA its now your site. This will help grow SEO naturally as well as drive traffic to your site from people who want to read more articles or maybe you had a cut off point so they couldn't read the whole thing until they visited your page.

      Hope this answers your question
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      Please do not use your signature to promote affiliate/MLM programs

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  • Profile picture of the author jipolis7
    Before jumping into the methods of promoting your website, reevaluate yourself with the questions below.

    1 Does my website have quality contents or services that might be useful to people?
    2 Does my website look professional and tidy?
    3 Does my website have membership features where users can sign-up to create an account, log-in anytime later, and have access to exclusive website features?
    4 Does my website have features where I can hook my visiting users to create communities and allow them to post their thoughts about or related to my website's theme?

    How to promote your affiliate site

    I think this link will help you to some extent.
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  • Profile picture of the author evilsaigon
    Originally Posted by Subseven View Post

    Hi,

    To be able to generate some income while learning more, I decided I would start up simple in IM with the creation of an affiliate site. After browsing through Clickbank products, I picked a specific diet that has good monthly searches without too much competition.

    I put some articles from ezinearticls up there, including an article linking to my product and some additional recipes, rewritten.

    A lot of people suggested forum and blog advertising to drive traffic as a main source of visitors. However, I wonder what is the best way to do this, without being considered as spam. What are the best ways to get your site out there, without resorting to spam? Signatures in forums are in my opinion the best idea, but a lot of forums have signatures disabled. And how would I go about getting my website out there on blogs? How would i go from commenting on a simple blog entry to linking my website? Maybe I'm a bit too skeptical by thinking people actually passionate about the diet will not be interested in a combination of some articles..

    Any information or experience with forum / blog marketing would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
    You can build your signature in this giant health niche forum: Steady Health. Probably the rare gem in the health niche, so do treat with care!

    You'll need 100 posts before you can hyperlink your signature links, but hey, I think it's worth the effort for 100 backlinks in a site full of real prospects. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    First thing you need to create is a Blog where you create top quality content around your niche

    Having a blog online within your niche gives you a massive advantage over your competition

    Create a blog and add at least 1 new top quality article each week especially if it's a new blog and then you can taper off when things are going well, then link to your squeeze page from your blog. You can also include an opt in form on your blog and sprinkle your squeeze page link in and around your content with text links

    Your blog will be the back bone of your entire business, from here you are:

    building your list
    building traffic to your blog
    branding yourself
    building authority within your niche

    When you have a blog online it's way easier to build traffic because you can leave blog comments, participate in forums and send your subscribers back to your blog for more information and content

    It's easier having a blog because sometimes when you leave links to your squeeze page they don't always get approved

    Once you have a blog you can generate lots more traffic by:

    Sending your subscribers back to your blog posts helping to share your content with more people
    Leave blog comments
    Guest posting
    Add videos to your blog

    I think you get the idea

    Having a blog online gives you the opportunity to generate tonnes more exposure, traffic and subscribers into your business

    This is not theory, this is what I do but in the IM niche ;-)

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author ExpertSEOServices
    Check out the challenge to find out more on setting up sites, monotizing them and making money.

    Build up your skills and get an apprentiship type job on Odesk where you can learn and make money at the same time

    Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author tagalog
    If you have not used the diet you will have difficulty answering questions that you would get in forums and Facebook.

    Personally I try whenever possible to promote programs I have experience with and am therefore able to give my personal opinion before the potential customer visits the sales page.
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  • Profile picture of the author gtone
    I think most top internet marketers do not know much about their niche to start with. They got to become an expert with time as they researched, learn and help others. So, you do not really need to know much, just your interest and willingness to educated yourself and with the help of other people you also can become an expert in your chosen niche with time.
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    Stay Focus.....
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    you could always just buy a banner on the forum you want to target, I have made tens of thousands of dollars adverting on forums. It will cost some money but with a good conversion funnel that's quite alright.
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  • Profile picture of the author gtone
    Also just to add. I have seen some people that do not have a clue about the niche and all they did was team up with someone that knew about the topic and before they knew it they were even selling their own product with results off course. So,I think it depends on how you present yourself and who you team up with.
    Signature
    Stay Focus.....
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