Guess what sells? Controversy, people are attracted to it. They want to hear it and read it. But, as an affiliate marketer you have to tread a thin line and never cross it.

I use two types of content on hub pages. One is a simple product review page and the other is an informative rich hub page. You need to take different angles when you write your content for both.

Product Review Page Content

I have used product review pages very successfully on hub pages. But, you must keep your ego in check. You do not want to sound like you are promoting a product. You want to sound like an innocent bystander that happened to stumble upon a product and it changed your everyday life.

I always put myself in the reader’s shoes. I always ask a list of questions before I ever begin filling in my content.

1. Who will use this product?
2. Why do they need this product?
3. What problems does this product solve?
4. Who can benefit from this product?
5. What age group will get the greatest benefit from this product?

I answer those questions honestly and then dig into the forums and other means of research and check out what other people are saying. If the product is crap, I want to know. If the product works I want to know. I need to research this product from head to toe, before I ever put finger to keyboard. The more thorough I am in my research the higher quality content I add. I also try and buy the product I am promoting. The quickest way to become an authority is to purchase the product.

Put yourself in the shoes of your readers. Try and gain their perspective, understand how they feel and how you can help them part with their money. They know how bad they want to buy a certain product and they will justify buying it. They justify it buy reading product reviews. People will always make a decision based
on emotion and then try and justify it logically later.

Your readers will come to your hub page with full guard, hoping to find a good reason not to purchase a product. They are fueled by emotion. They really want to buy the product you’re promoting, but they are still trying to justify it logically. Don’t let logic into the equation! You need to be able to write and know enough about a product to fire up their emotions. Tell them how much your product you are promoting did for you. Did it change your life? Tell them.

Don’t let them justify by not buying. The only way you can do this is by researching you product. Sure, you can put up a hub page in minutes and pray for sales. But a much better way and though it takes more time is to know enough about your visitors and products.

Here is a small list of words that will fire off psychological triggers in your readers mind.

• Discover
• Startling
• Secrets of
• The truth about
• New ways
• Bargain
• Breakthrough
• Sensational
• Free
• Revolutionary
• Advice
• Miracle
• Improvement
• Compare

Please use these words conservatively in your hub!

I always like to use them at the close to ensure I get them to my merchant’s page. These words work, do not let any one tell you they don’t!

Information Content

Sorry, but you need to compile research when writing informative content. Informative content is nothing more than adding content to your hub that will convey information to people.

It’s not a product review page!

Take a weight loss eBook for men. You can easily compile some research from the body building forums and plug that into your hub page. You can tell your readers about a certain weight lifting method combined with a certain cardio method and then at the bottom of your hub page. Say something like this, “Hey I have lost
weight and added size to my biceps, all due to the discovery I made. I tried this product off the internet and it really helped me realize my goals, I think you should check it out, if you’re into rapid weight loss.” Check out “GET BIG WITHOUT STEROIDS.” (Fictional name) Now, that is just an example, but that is how I would word it.

Back to controversy, I had a hub page that did quite well. It was focused on an eBook for women’s weight loss. I can say this, I wrote some pretty controversial statements about overweight women. It not only received a ton of negative comments from the readers, it also received a lot of sales. I tried to push them to the edge and let them dangle. I fired up their emotions. I pulled them back a little and guided them to a product that was guaranteed to help them alleviate their problems. Plus I sympathized with them near the end and it had amazing results. It was a controversial article and guess what? It pulled in 4 sales a day from only 45 visitors a day. Before you think controversial topics do not work, they will. I would like to add I used a pen name, a women’s pen name. So yes I acted the part of an overweight woman.

If you do not like going undercover, you do not have to. But, I like making money.

Please remember to research, the more you research the better content you can add. See what terminology people are using in the forums. Same with the advertisers and merchants. You need to indentify with your readers. Connecting to them is a great way to receive killer click through rates.

Recently, more affiliate marketers use the Hub Page as the landing page and advertise in Hooqy Media. In coming up several posts, we will talk about what Hub Page is, how Hub Page generates conversion and how to create a good Hub Page.

Hub Pages are a way for people like you and me to convey information to web surfers. They are simply one page sites that are sub pages of the main site, affectionately named “hubs”.

People all over the world are starving for information and affiliate marketers will not only give them information and top notch content, but hopefully they’ll have a problem that needs a solution and we will provide the solution that alleviates their problem.

You can produce all kinds of content using hubs but as an affiliate marketer Hub Pages will be used to set up one page product review pages or informational rich content. We can also use them to drive traffic to our own web sites, if you have them.

Hubs allow us to reach a wide range of audiences and Hub Pages gives you the power to reach thousands of people in search of information.

Hub Pages are free to use as long as you stay within their terms of service. It is a great resource that you can use to make money online, if used properly!

Hubs offer many choices when creating content filled pages. Each hub allows you to create “capsules”; which is where you will add your specific content.

Hubs have six “capsules” you can use to add content to your page.

• Text – allows you to write in the content you want to add
• Photo – allows you to add images to enhance your page
• Video – allows you to add You Tube videos
• Links – Enables you to offer your readers different links to click thru
• News – You can keep your readers updated on certain events around the world
• RSS – allows you to add RSS feeds to your page
• Comments – allows your readers to add comments about your hub

Hubs also contain two revenue sharing “capsules”.

• Amazon – you can add Amazon products to your hub and share in the revenue with Hub Pages
• EBay – you can add EBay products to your hub and share in that revenue also

One of the problems with Hub Pages is the exit links that are provided by Google AdSense. As an affiliate marketer, you would want your visitors to exit via one of your affiliate links. But, Ad Sense allows them another exit, as does the Amazon and EBay revenue capsules. You do share in the revenue when someone clicks on an ad, but nevertheless, it’s an exit I wish to avoid. I have built hubs for the sole purpose of earning Ad Sense revenue, but they do not earn the same type of revenue as an affiliate commission, usually.

The neat thing about hubs is the ability to move “capsules” around. It takes a simple click of the mouse and you can move “capsules” into any position on the page you desire. You can test different techniques, but usually just an up front product review works best. Add in an image or video, plus a killer RSS feed and you have your very own cash machine.

Almost all the information and tools created around finding good keywords to rank high for in Google, is based on speculation.

We have learned that if we have the keyword in our domain name, in the title, context, and in anchor text, we will rank high in the search result on Google. Especially if we also have relevant links from other
websites pointing back to our website.

Therefore, we analyze, and search for keywords based on these criteria. This is probably a correct conclusion, but we do not know this with certainty. It may therefore, be a waste of time searching for keywords where we see that other webmasters and marketers haven’t been good enough to optimize their websites within these criteria.

In cases where we have no other option, this is the way to do a keyword search, until otherwise proven.

I personally, do not like to base my time and my income on speculation, and you shouldn’t either.

In my opinion, there is only one truth, written in stone, when it comes to determining keywords that it is easy to rank high for with Google.

If you can find keywords where you see that Google has ranked articles from articles directories or other context from Web 2.0 sites, among the 10 first search results, then the keyword probably is easy
to rank for.

If an article, submitted to a 3 part website around a subject is all it takes for Google to present it at their 1 page result, it probably means that Google do not find enough relevant information to present to
their users, at this moment.

Our goal is also to determine those keyword phrases with highly search volume and low real competition, so we can rank our content inside the first 10 result in Google, for free.

Tools We Will Use.

The tools we will use are web pages that we all are familiar with. It is the combination, and the approach to them that will probably be new to you.

We will be using.

1. Alexa (Primary tool)
2. Articles directories and 2.0 websites (Primary tool)
3. Google (Primary tool)
4. The Google’s keyword tool (Sublimental tool)

Alexa

We know Alexa as a website that publishes data on how much traffic a website receives. They rank web pages according to a scale were as a lower score a website has, the more traffic this website receives.
Alexa’s way of ranking a page, is that they rank websites with a system, where their highest score is 1. If a website has an Alexa ranking of 1, it means that the website is among the mostly visited website on the net.

We will use Alexa to find keywords that have a lot of traffic.

Alexa has, in fact, a feature where you can see what keywords that drive most traffic to the website they have analyzed.

Articles directories and 2.0 websites

Most of us know about the various Article’s directories like Ezinearticles, Goarticles etc.

We use those directories as places where we submit our articles so other webmaster can pick them up and by this, we will spread our articles, and expose our website to so many people as human
possible.

We also use Article’s directories to retrieve relevant articles which we can use on our own websites.

We use web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Squdoo, Hub, and other social sites as places where we can directly communicate with like-minded people.

What we almost never think about is that these websites are user-driven. This mean that it is we, as users, who are giving this website’s content, and it is also we, the users, who decide what topic is most popular.

Since the majority of users are marketers, especially those who submit articles to Article’s directories, the content in those websites is also highly market-oriented.

Google

I will not insult your intelligence telling you how to use Google.com as a search tool.

We will use Google to make sure that those keywords and keyword phrases collected from Alexa still contain articles and pages from articles directories and web 2.0 websites among the first 10 search result in Google.

We also want to see if there are Adsense ads on the right side of Google search results, proving that this is a marked oriented keyword.

Google Keyword Tool

We do not have to use this tool at all, because Alexa is telling us that this keyword has a lot of traffic.

You can use it if you want to, just to make sure that this keyword generates traffic.

When you use Google Keyword Tool, make sure that you use the “exact match” feature so you find the search volume for that keyword, as is, and not as a part of a longer keyword phrase.

I will use GKT in my 3 case study, as evidence of traffic.

The Google’s keyword tool is not 100% adequate when it comes to how many searches there is for a keyword or keyword phrase.

Don’t hang yourself up in those numbers, because Alexa has already told us that those keywords are responsible for the majority of the traffic to the website, so we know that those keywords are generating traffic.

You can also use other keyword tools as “Wordtracker” and similar tools that give out search volume for specific keyword phrases instead of Google Keyword tool.

2009 will be ended soon. Do you remember what topics are hit in this year? We summarize “The Most Keywords Search”, “The Toppest Twitter Trending Topics” and “The Most Watched Videos On Youtube”

The Most Keywords Search

Variations of the term Facebook actually accounted for four of the top twenty-five terms, the firm says. “Facebook” itself moved up from the 10th spot in 2008 to the top spot in 2009.

Although MySpace has taken a lot of flack in recent memory, as Facebook has gained popularity, MySpace was still the second most-searched term in 2009, according to Experian Hitwise. It had been the top term for the previous three years.

Following MySpace on the list was Craigslist, YouTube, and Yahoo Mail. “Analysis of the search terms reveals that social networking–related terms dominated the results, accounting for 2.48 percent of the top 300 searches,” a representative for Experian Hitwise tells WebProNews.

“Adding up common search terms — e.g., facebook and facebook.com — Facebook terms accounted for 1.09 percent of all US searches,” he says. “MySpace terms accounted for 1.02 percent, Yahoo terms accounted for 0.95 percent, Google terms accounted for 0.63 percent, and Craigslist terms accounted for 0.62 percent.”

Google was unsurprisingly the top-visited website for the second straight year, accounting for 6.7% of all U.S. visits between January and November 2009, according to Experian Hitwise. Yahoo Mail accounted for 4.44% of visits, followed by Facebook (4.26%), Yahoo (3.36%) and MySpace (3%).

“Adding up common properties — e.g., yahoo.com and mail.yahoo.com — Yahoo! properties accounted for 10.60 percent of all U.S. visits,” the representative says. “Google properties accounted for 9.93 percent, and Facebook properties accounted for 4.26 percent. The top 50 Websites accounted for 39 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2009.”

Top Twitter Trending Topics

News Events

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran

People

1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown

Movies

1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek

TV Shows

1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues)

1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl

Technology

1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES

Hash Tags

1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust

The Most Watched YouTube Video

For these lists, we looked at view counts of YouTube’s most popular videos this year (in some instances we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video):

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):

1. Susan Boyle – Britain’s Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:

1. Pitbull “I Know You Want Me” (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus “The Climb” (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus “Party in the U.S.A.” (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island “I’m On a Boat” (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson “Knock You Down” (35+ million views)

Then, to determine the fastest rising search terms for each month, we examined the billions of queries that people searched for on YouTube (through December 15):

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):

January: inauguration
February: christian bale
March: the climb
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao vs hatton
June: michael jackson thriller
July: michael jackson
August: usain bolt
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: bad romance
December: tiger woods

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):

January: obama inauguration
February: on a boat
March: watchmen
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao
June: michael jackson thriller
July: wedding
August: send it on
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: adam lambert
December: tiger woods

There are a lot of interesting nuggets in here. The fastest rising U.S. search term in July was [wedding], clearly related to “JK Wedding Entrance Dance,” the third Most Watched YouTube video of the year. And while [michael jackson] was Google’s fastest rising search term in 2009, [michael jackson thriller] was the faster rising search on YouTube. Movie trailers (“New Moon,” “Watchmen,” “Paranormal Activity”) and inspirational moments (Susan Boyle, Usain Bolt) were popular, as were sensational celebrity scandals (Christian Bale, Kanye West and, most recently, Tiger Woods).

Some advertisers complain with us that the bid prices of some popular keywords are higher than others. We understand that this issue occurs in keyword targeting ad network including Hooqy. When keywords yield high conversion rates, the advertisers are willing to bid higher. As a result, the bid price is controlled by the market, not by the ad networks.

To bid keywords at lower cost, we suggest our advertisers to use misspelled keyword strategy. You can use misspelled search terms and keywords that can be spelled in a number of ways, such as geographically different UK and US spellings. These terms, while highly searched, may not be used for many advertisers and therefore give your campaign a competitive edge.

Wrong spelling in Internet search is a pretty common thing in the internet. Bidding for misspelled keywords make sense if you want to lower the price and get the same impression of spelled keywords. As you know, PPC and PPV advertising charge you a certain amount per click/per view and this amount varies depending on the competition among advertisers for certain keywords. For example, if Hooqy may charge your $10 for the keyword ‘diabetes’, the bid for its misspelled alternative will be a lot cheaper (something like $2 or so per click).

This is an excellent mechanism to tap into a percentage of search users who make typos at a lower cost.

Some advertisers will question us whether misspelled keywords are really useful or not. Although English is a global language, the number of people who claim English as their first language is still a small percentage of total Internet users. According to statistics, hardly 8% of the world population use English as their first language. According to our research, there is 32% lead generation which are converted by misspelled keywords.

Misspelled keywords can be useful and allow your campaign to:

1. Target visitors that are commonly misspelled, for instance ‘camra’ instead of ‘camera’
2. Get good traffic from profitable popular search terms that have low levels of competition
3. Capture regional spelling variations, eg. both UK and US spellings of words such as ‘optimisation’ (’optimization’)