56 Comments

Realistically, how much $ is needed to start affiliate marketing?

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Technically you can start with just paying for hosting and a domain. But realistically you'll want to have a couple thousand saved up for various expenses (tools, linkbuilding, etc.) Once you scale it you'll need more to pay for writers, but you can do all the writing yourself at first.

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Doesn't BTB say that you can't make money from writing? Is this different because your focus is on "best of" lists instead of writing large amounts of content?

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It's hard to make money if you're the only one writing. The idea is to start making money and reinvest it in more content over time.

You don't focus on best of lists, they're just one piece of the puzzle. It's definitely a long term thing

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so you have to hire writers once you become profitable? or do you take your earnings and pivot to ecommerce?

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Brand new site. Beyond HARO, fastest way to get quality backlinks?

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Buy them.

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Suggestions on where? Fiverr? What do you look for? Lots of people selling links, but don't want to get labeled as spammy.

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No, not Fiverr. Authority builders is a good resource. Otherwise you're going to have to do the work and contact sites to see if they accept link placements or guest posts.

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What about using fatjoe.com?

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I've used them. They're a good service but they may not place your links on the most relevant sites

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Thanks for such valuable education from BowTied team as always. Now i'm having 2 jobs at the same time but still want to have a truly online business for myself, however, I don't have that much time to create content that many. Do you have any experience to give recommendation about using VA from such as fiver to create content for you? and if so, what is the pricing method would you recommend? My strategy is that I will have outline of keywords, content ideas, keyword targetted, all of though using AI and a bit of rational decision, but I will VA for content creation.

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Yes if you can afford it having a VA work for you is the way to go. But not Fiverr. I recommend hiring one part time or full time if you have enough money to give them a job for a while. If not, then pay per article on Upwork. More expensive but higher quality. Don't cheap out on content

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Thanks for your recommendation. I'm quite new here, i'm crunching The BowtiedOpossum technical advice and your as content side. Im reading everything I can right now to fix my mindset of SEO from beginning. Do you have any recommendation for the 2000 words's quotation from Upword. I'm filtering Freelancer from Phillipines, Native English,>90% success and complete rate.

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Not sure what you're asking.

Are you asking about advice for finding writers on Upwork?

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Sorry. My question is, how much should I spend on for an article by freelancer based on your recommendation?

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$100-$200 is a good rate

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How long does it take to see the impacts of link building?

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Anywhere from 4 weeks to the heat death of the universe.

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Ok cool big window of opportunity lol

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I’m at a decision point: do I fix my current content site or start a new site? Context: started hobby blog years ago. Grew it to 50,000 views/mo. 250+ post. All organic traffic. Almost 0 SEO optimization on page or technical. No external SEO, no link building. Wasn’t making much money from it until I put Mediavine ads on there. My goal is to get to $10k per month, currently at 1,200. I think it will take a ton of time to update the site and might need a bunch of redirects setup which is risky, right?I’m wondering if I’m better off starting an ecomm site instead. I’m on the move and using voice to text so please excuse if this sounds like a ramble. Thanks

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I’m at a decision point: do I fix my current content site or start a new site? Context: started hobby blog years ago. Grew it to 50,000 views/mo. 250+ post. All organic traffic. Almost 0 SEO optimization on page or technical. No external SEO, no link building. Wasn’t making much money from it until I put Mediavine ads on there. My goal is to get to $10k per month, currently at 1,200. I think it will take a ton of time to update the site and might need a bunch of redirects setup which is risky, right?I’m wondering if I’m better off starting an ecomm site instead. I’m on the move and using voice to text so please excuse if this sounds like a ramble. Thanks

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That's a decent amount of pageviews per month. I'd keep it and try to fix any problems with it

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Thanks. Have been devouring your substack. Signed up for HARO finally!

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Nice! Everyone should be using HARO. Free high-DA links. It's mostly a numbers game

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What do you say to people who say, "nooo, you're shitting up google with spammy results. The internet is turning into a hell hole of shitty marketing content."

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how do you pick a solid brand/domain name?

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Best affiliate YouTube channels?

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Matt Diggity. Passive Income Geek

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How to avoid keyword canibalization when creating "best x" and "best x for y" articles?

I'm running sites in another language then english and can often rank for just best x.

My best x articles is giving out awards like best x for y to try to rank for the longer terms as well.

But now I'm debating if it's maybe worth doing separate articles for the most common best x for y when I already have the data for our favourite products.

For example our article on the best strollers is giving out these awards:

- best stroller

- best stroller for tall parents

- best stroller for all terrain

- best stroller for small cars

...

And I think our topical authority would improve if we published more best x for y on the same subject.

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Yes you should definitely write separate articles for each of those topics. A main "best x" and also "best x for y". As long as you add the correct keywords in Surfer when you write the articles it won't cannibalize the keywords

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Thanks. That was my thought as well and with good internal linking it should not be a problem.

Lately I've seen some sites get like a tree-like result in the SERP with both the best x and the best x for y results.

Surfer is not amazing when it comes to international seo thou.

The SERP is not allways filled with relevant articles and sometimes there is nothing good to compare to. :)

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Agreed. The weak point of Surfer is if there aren't enough relevant competitors. One way to help with that is to add a bunch of different slightly-related keywords to the same content editor (also helps your ability to rank for long-tail KWs).

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Where do you recommend buying content from besides Wordagents?

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I hire Filipino VAs to write full time. Make sure you have enough money to keep them hired for the long term though since they'll be relying on you for their bills.

Also freelancers on Upwork.

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What's your process for coming up with featured post images and images throughout posts? I'm using SurferSEO but often it wants 30+ images in a post. Also, what dimensions do you recommend for the images?

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You can use the stock photos in Canva and slightly edit them so they are unique. For product photos that you're taking from manufacturer sites remove the background in Canva and add a new one so it's unique.

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New Site - What should I do

1) Found 50+ article to write, which are already written by sites with DA 15-25 and KD <10 with monthly search ~250. Only top 2-3 positions are about the topic and rest are filled with articles slightly related to the topic. Is it possible to beat them? How long will it take me to get to page 1?

2) Currently writing articles which are not covered by any site. Found them through Google auto complete. I could only find 13 articles to write about. Should I harass google to find more such keywords?

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If you have a new site then it's going to take some time before you can beat them. You should write those articles but also write articles about important topics in your niche that you have no chance of ranking for. It's not just about the specific article but also your overall topical authority. If you dont have the main articles that Google wants to see from your niche then the easy wins won't ever rank.

Finding more articles that have search volume but no competition is always a good thing.

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Is it ok to use tools like spin rewriter or quillbot to write about imp topics for topical authority- Does google sees it bad?

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You should not use anything like that. Shortcuts don't work. I recommend writing all your articles in Surfer.

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Thank You Ser Tetra!

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Questions to ask when vetting an SEO agency? Red flags to look for?

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Ask for results from previous clients.

Red flags would be promising quick results. If they're legit they'll be upfront with the fact that anything SEO-related takes a long time. Also if they have woke nonsense on their site then they 100% suck otherwise they wouldn't need to talk about anything other than their results.

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What's your take on minimum contract periods? Some agencies demand 6 months, others 12. I feel like once they lock you in, the incentive to work hard for you disappears.

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It's not a problem. They're making sure that you have the right expectations and aren't going to bail when you're not on page one after just a couple months. Most people have a hard time accepting that SEO takes awhile.

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What's the best source for learning how to place ads on your content site?

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