Best CPA Network

It’s now common knowledge among all agents and brokers with websites that legitimate links help boost your search engine rankings. But getting those links can be a long and tedious process.

And your links have to be legit. Google will actually penalize your page ranking if you’re caught using one of those “link farms” or automated link exchangers.
The good news is that there are easy, cheap and often free ways to build valuable links to your website. Here are 13 tips alone that can get you dozens of links immediately.

1. Sign up for social networking sites
Social networking sites are all the rage today. Beyond the fad, they’re useful tools for staying in touch with friends and relatives. Because their basic membership is free and allow you to provide a description about yourself, they’re ideal candidates for your first links.

You can sign up for over a dozen of these sites in just a couple of hours. Be prepared to provide some information about who you are and what you do. And don’t forget to include the link to your website.

There are literally hundreds of social networking sites available. Wikipedia has a list of the most popular at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites, including the following:

• www.MySpace.com
• www.FaceBook.com
• www.Ning.com
• www.Friendster.com
• www.Hi5.com
• www.MeetUp.com
• www.Orkut.com
• www.Meetin.org

2. Sign up for professional networking sites.
Professional networking sites have proliferated along with social networks. Some are better than others, but most have no charge for their basic membership. The most popular include the following:

• www.LinkedIn.com
• www.Plaxo.com
• www.Xing.com
• www.Yorz.com
• www.Ryze.com
• www.Ecademy.com

3. Join online e-groups.
Before the above social and professional networking sites emerged, the most popular online groups revolved around listservs. The big ones are still around and have evolved into a type of networking site as well. As soon as you can, sign up with the 4 big internet companies that continue to maintain group sites:

• http://Groups.Yahoo.com
• http://Groups.MSN.com
• http://Groups.Google.com
• http://Groups.AOL.com

The great thing about them is that they’re easy to join. Once you sign up, I recommend you join the various insurance groups. But avoid posting spam. If you want to post, make sure it’s something substantial.

But in addition to joining existing groups, start some of your own. You can create multiple groups, and I recommend creating health insurance discussion groups for each of the states and metropolitan areas you serve. Then add customized descriptions with links to your site in each group. When you issue press releases or make announcements, remember to post a blurb, with links to your site, in your different groups.

4. Get listed in online directories
A variety of online directories offer free listing opportunities for businesses. Use a search engine to find local and regional directory lists of insurance providers and general businesses. Some do require that you swap links with them, which isn’t a bad idea - if you can put their link or ad in a link page separate from your home page.

Don’t overlook media-, city-, county- and state-sponsored directories either. Many newspapers and communities operate directory listings for businesses and organizations in their area. Make sure that your website is on those lists.

5. Post a free classified ad
Several sites let businesses post free classified ads. The most well-known is Craig’s List (www.CraigsList.com). Other free classified ad sites include www.BeatYourPrice.com and the eBay-owned www.Kijiji.com.

However, many of these sites will reject your ad if it’s apparent you’re just using them to drive traffic to your site. The solution is to actually sell or give away something, such as a free eBook, informative brochure or no-obligation quote. For example: “For a free eBook detailing the presidential candidates’ platforms on healthcare, go to (yourinsurancewebsite.com)”

6. Update your alumni directory listing
Many alumni directories have started to develop an online community for their alumni. It’s about time! Check your alma mater’s online alumni directory and update your listing to include a link to your broker website - and don’t overlook your high school.

7. Join cultural, arts and volunteer organizations
Most volunteer organizations now have websites or e-groups. If you’re already volunteering, see if you’re able to add your business listing to their member pages.

If you’re not involved with any group, consider volunteering for a worthwhile cause, church group or community project. Volunteering provides an even greater value than just links.

8. Get accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
In addition to adding your business to their directory, joining and getting accredited by the BBB gives you a marketing tool. You’ll be able to mention that fact on your website. It’s not going to necessarily sell your programs, but that connection will help alleviate many people’s worries about your company.

9. Join a civic or professional organization
You’re probably already in at least one insurance industry group, and most professional organizations already maintain listings of their members. Make sure your website is included.

In addition, don’t forget about civic organizations such as the Rotary International, Kiwanis and Lions Club. All of these clubs do charge membership dues, but the networking and volunteer opportunities are sometimes worth it.

10. Chamber of commerce.
Even if you’re in the middle of nowhere, there’s still at least one chamber of commerce you can join. If you live in larger communities, you may be able to join two or three chambers: your city’s, your state’s and perhaps even your local neighborhood’s chamber. In addition, certain ethnic groups also have their own chambers of commerce.

Yes, a membership fee is involved, but that fee provides more than just a link.

11. Trade links and articles with new contacts
After a few months with a chamber of commerce and a civic, professional or volunteer organization, you’ll soon be making contacts with fellow professionals and entrepreneurs.

Although they may not buy anything from you, they can still assist your marketing by swapping links or articles with you. Don’t forget that in addition to their website, they can link to you from their blogs, e-groups and online networking pages.

12. Get something back from your suppliers.
Most of your vendors and suppliers already have web pages. They also value your business. Why not ask all of them to add your link to their company websites, as well their rep’s networking pages?

It doesn’t cost them anything, but it improves their standing in your eyes. To sweeten the request, consider giving them a positive testimonial about your experience with their company.

13. Get on your clients’ websites and pages.
Just as your vendors have websites, most of your clients also have websites and personal pages on many of the networking sites. Make it a routine part of your post-closing process to ask your clients to swap links. This will be especially attractive to entrepreneurs who have websites.

You can also ask past clients for links, but make sure that they’re satisfied and trustworthy clients. If your link from their webpage is accompanied by a complaint about your service or product, that complaint could attach itself to your link.

By knowing the most expensive keywords on the internet, you can create websites and web pages based on these keywords. On these sites and pages, you can serve expensive ads and/or promote affiliate offers that reap high bounties when clicked or completed.

The challenge lies in driving traffic to these sites. One way to drive traffic is through search engine optimization, whereby you create a website that ranks highly on the search engines and receive ?free? traffic. Or, if you already have an existing well-ranked site, you can create new pages linked from your existing pages. A second way to drive traffic is through online advertising.
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One of the best ways to monetize a web site, and among the least known, is lead generation, which is actually a highly lucrative form of affiliate marketing, but is used by relatively few online marketers.

Here’s how lead generation works. Listen up - this information is golden!

Monetizing a website by becoming a CPA affiliate is very, very simple. You sign up with one of the 50 or so CPA Networks that are available online, drive traffic to the custom landing pages they provide, and get paid whenever a site visitor fills out and submits a form. That is really all there is to it.

A CPA network is a clearing house that brings advertisers and publishers together. The advertiser provides a custom landing page and form, pays the network commission for making it available to affiliates, and the affiliates in turn are paid for driving traffic and generating signups.

CPA stands for “cost per action”, and in this case, the action is the site visitor filling out the form. Compare this to traditional affiliate marketing, and you will see the beauty of it quickly. Done right, it is a much easier and more lucrative way to monetize a website.

A traditional affiliate must acquire traffic, do a good job of “pre-selling” the product, and send visitors on to the vendor site through an affiliate link, hoping to generate something like 1% to 5% sales, which in turn is highly dependent on the quality of the vendor’s sales letter and product. If the vendor does a poor job of selling on the sales site, or has an over-priced or poorly received product, the affiliate has spent a lot of time, and perhaps money, for very little return.

A CPA affiliate, on the other hand, has a much easier job of things. He or she must still acquire traffic, either by paying for it, or by putting together a well-optimized site that gets good search engine placement for certain key words. At that point, however, the CPA affiliate’s job is nearly complete.

The next step is for the site visitor to fill out a form requesting some sort of information. Keep in mind, this does not entail the visitor getting out his or her wallet, or making a decision to spend any money. All it entails is that the visitor *request free information* and give his or her name and email address, and perhaps a physical address.

You, as the CPA affiliate, get paid *even though your site visitor has yet to buy anything*. You are getting paid for a LEAD, not a sale.

Many people have no idea how huge and lucrative lead generation is, and not a clue the kind of money that certain businesses will pay for a good lead. Things like mortgage and insurance leads, in particular, are very, very valuable, as are credit card leads. But even something as seemingly inexpensive as a cell phone ring tone can bring you a nice commission per lead. Why?

These lead purchasers are planning on maximizing the long-term value of a customer. In the case of a mortgage, one lead can generate a commission of thousands of dollars to a mortgage broker. An insurance or credit card account is worth recurring commissions potentially for many, many years. Even a ring tone lead has a long-term value, since the vendor will continue to market to that person over and over again, selling them many times what it cost to acquire them as a customer.

CPA is big, big business, and one of the best ways there is to monetize your web site. If you are looking for easy and lucrative ways to monetize a web site, CPA affiliation could be your answer. To really do well at CPA, you need to learn how to use traffic generation methods like Google Adwords effectively, but in the long run, CPA is far easier and more lucrative than traditional affiliate marketing.