#this just sounds like the average channel awesome affiliate's experience

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E32 (August 28, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel!

Announcements: 

No Talks Machina next Tuesday, but they will be back the following week to discuss episode 33 of CR. Next Tuesday, instead of Talks, they’re filming something very special for the new channel. Sam: “You are? Oh, god.” 

Handbooker Helper premieres tomorrow at 10 AM Pacific Time at youtube.com/criticalrole! The first episode focuses on dice basics. 

There’s a new charity drive for the Pablove Foundation, dedicated to research toward ending children’s cancer; they’ve already hit the first $20k benchmark, which means Sam will be DMing a game of Crash Pandas! The next goal is $50k, which will be used to establish a research grant.

@critrolestats for this episode:

Nott has successfully disguised herself 12 times since the campaign started.

Caleb’s most-cast spells (in order): Alarm, Firebolt, and Identify.

The party has spent 55 of their 81 days together on the road.

Gustav’s sentence in Trostenwald lasted 77 days. He averaged about 7 gold, 8 copper per day of work.

Is Nott freaked out after her adventure with Jester went so badly? “Nott is always freaked out to do anything, but is starting to loosen up a bit and trust that-- at least up until this last episode-- trust that her friends could get her out of most scenarios. Maybe she’ll be a little more hesitant in the future.” She might “take one of the responsible ones along, like Fjord or Caleb.” Liam: “Yeah, you should bring someone sharp and level-headed, in case you need to go to a hospital...”

Caleb loves that a fan points out the parallels between Caleb’s similarities to the protagonist in the Dark Tower books: “Caleb wants to do really specific things, and he is not done with that. They’re potentially harmful, and I think that before he started traveling with these people, the main thing was getting them to trust me, and form a working relationship, but the bigger problem now is, does their friendship become a problem? Do I want to get close to you if I know potentially that I’ve got to walk away from you at a bad moment?” There’s another element he can’t talk about yet where he took more direct inspiration from The Dark Tower. He’s not sure yet which way Caleb will end up veering, and whether there’s a point where he’ll prioritize his friends over his long-term goals. “For all characters, there’s what he tells himself is the deal, and what’s really the deal. I’m enjoying not knowing where the hell it’s going.”

“Nott doesn’t really much care about Gustav, but also does not give a shit about money. It’s a means to an end for her.” Other than providing a little security for herself and Caleb, “the other stuff is way cooler, the little buttons and stuff.” When the opportunity came to pay so much for Gustav’s release, “she was like, ‘Yeah, sure, great.’”

Sam and Nott both wanted to know more about Molly’s past. Liam wanted to know, but Caleb didn’t care. Especially since Molly emphasized not caring about his past, and they didn’t know each other too well, Caleb was satisfied to just take that at face value. Molly’s experience was also interesting as a complete opposite to Caleb’s own experience of being completely consumed by his past.

Sam and Liam talk about how they both think about the show constantly throughout the week. Liam: “And I also spend 10% of my week thinking about Vax, too.”

Gif of the Week: Caduceus learns how much money 400 gold is. There may or may not be a live voiceover version of the text.

Why does Caleb still use fire? “Caleb feels like he needs to work through it, ‘cause fire’s not going anywhere. Maybe something that will come out eventually is the reason that fire is his first and he has a real affinity for it now. The fire is natural progression. The Fireball is something that Caleb got just from leveling up, so I took that for him to be understanding what he can already do and magnifying it. It’s the strongest weapon in his arsenal. He needs to master the misery and the pain so he’s ready to deal with facing his ex-teacher someday, or other people.” On Beau being the one to bring him back each time lately: “He likes that. It’s a flawed friendship, it’s not affectionate the way Caleb and Nott is, but that’s okay. The instinct to bet big and tell her everything came from a sense of shared interest, and shared point of view. They’re still very different, but there’s a lot in common there.” A lot of the things she does has been reaffirming his choice to take a chance on her.

Nott’s aware that she’s been more and more powerful, and so she’s been drinking less in battle situations. “She’s still skittish and gets nervous about stuff, but they’ve survived and succeeded in enough fights now that she’s becoming a little more brave.” Liam asks if Nott knows how gifted she is. Sam: “She’s aware that she can do things better than other folks in the group, but she probably would not think those things are the most spectacular.” Liam talks about how Caleb and Nott are “two different kinds of gifted weirdos.” Sam: “Just like us. Except for the ‘gifted’ part.”

Caleb was impressed by Caduceus’ approach to the Ettin encounter.

Sam: “Something that I just decided about goblins: they have short lifespans, and they’re also super brutal and just attack and they’re mean and get hungry and all this stuff, so I just thought, maybe goblins are just like unrestrained id.” A lot of Nott’s character came from that thought.

It felt really strange for Nott and Caleb to be welcomed by Alfield when they arrived. Caleb’s concerned about their amplified visibility in the Empire, which isn’t sitting well with him. At least when they’re affiliated with the Gentleman and the criminal element, it keeps the visibility away. Nott’s hesitant to be in the spotlight, but has also realized that cheering means fewer thrown rocks, so that’s good.

Fanart of the Week: Jester and Caduceus strolling through town.

There’s a brief foray into autoerotic asphyxiation. As you do.

Liam, Taliesin, and Marisha have all met SideBySamuel. The mystery continues.

Caleb on the dodecahedron: “It’s a little too perfect.” It confirms what he believes---that it has to be possible to manipulate time---and drives him forward. He wonders about the source that this thing is a splinter of. He’s also wondering if the Academy’s project is one and the same. “Time travel is good. It definitely does not endanger present reality.”

“What is Talks Machina, Brian?”

Brian: “We have to put a stop to this.”

Sam: “On the surface, Nott noticed that Caleb mentioned Astrid and probably just thinks that it would be nice to have a young lady in his life.” Dani: “I called your ex-girlfriend the other day, and we’re having lunch.” Sam: “I hear she’s a doctor...” Liam: “I’m tired of coming over to these dinners, ma.” Sam: “I hear the wizard down the street got married...”

Liam on Astrid: “That would be bad stuff. Bad news. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it’s complicated.” Sam: “Astrid has got to be either super bad guy now, super dead, or something else we don’t know about.” Liam: “One of the many things Caleb wonders about every night before he goes to sleep, about both his friends. He doesn’t know. It’s been 16 years since he saw them last.” He’s 33 now. The fire happened when he was about 16, he was in the asylum for 11-ish years, and then he was traveling on his own for about five.

Nott worries about Caleb “about the same” in battle, but she’s definitely noticing the others stepping up, especially Beau, to watch out for and protect him. Sam points out that Liam’s strategy has been excellent lately to keep Caleb out of danger. “Nott always has an eye on Caleb, and Sam always has an eye on Caleb.” Liam: “That’s what Vax did. I would override common sense consciously because I thought it was in-character.” He still has to suppress his first instinct to have Caleb fling himself into danger for his friends.

On the surface, Caleb knows it’s not a good thing for Nott to be so affectionate toward him, but deep down, Caleb really appreciates Nott’s affection. “With Beau, there’s no affection, but he feels like he should be called an asshole and a shit, and he feels like he deserves it. It will keep him sharpened and on task.” He likes, on an unconscious level, what he gets from both of them for different reasons.

Which pet does Nott want to eat first? The weasel. Definitely. Sam ventures a theory that the pets represented the members of Vox Machina. The truth is out there, Sam.

To Caleb, it felt a bit wrong to turn his back on the Empire given everything that’s happening right now and everything that has to happen there in the future.

Talks Machina: After Dark: When It Gets Dirty (Big Dick Peanut Butter Energy)

Liam brings out both his Speak-n-Spell voice and his ~Cuddlefish~ voice. He also does a Nott impression. Sam: “You sound like Miss Piggy on acid.”

Nott’s not looking forward to the beach. Caleb’s interested in the beach in a Death in Venice kind of way. Brian ventures a guess that they’re going to discover that Caleb’s just inexplicably super ripped.

What tricks do they want to teach the pets? Liam: “Maybe ‘Die Instead Of Me’.”

Does Beau secretly have a gooey center? Sam and Liam, in unison: “Ask Keg.”

Nott feels safe with the M9 around, not because they protect her, but because they protect each other. “She’s always relied on Caleb for protection, and now I think she’s relieved more than surprised that she doesn’t have to put that burden on Caleb, or each other. That they have a support group of people that can help them and keep them out of danger.”

Nott expects Jester’s mom to be a “real sweet, fine, fancy lady.” Liam: “Caleb had good parents, and everything that Jester describes does not sound great to him.” He doesn’t say anything to her about it because he doesn’t feel like he can give advice. Dani: “My parents that I killed were awesome. As a child of great parents, that I murdered...”  He keeps asking about her childhood, and he’s fond of her, so he’s dismayed about what he hears, but he feels like he can’t say anything about it.

Liam: "My least favorite thing about Sam is how much of a fucking food snob he and his wife are. It’s unbearable, mostly because I want the food.” Sam: “The thing that I love most about Liam is that he’s a gentle love, but he’s a kind soul. He wants to help people. But he can’t because he’s too busy.” Liam: “True, true, true. What I like about Sam is he’s the living embodiment of Shakespeare’s Fools. He’s seemingly a buffoon, but if you know him well, you know that there’s no end to the depth and soul of his character. He is skating on talent and wit.”

Liam: “I don’t know how cameras work.”

[entrepreneurnut]

15 Best Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs

New Post has been published on https://entrepreneurnut.com/pay-per-lead-affiliate-programs/

15 Best Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs

When it comes to affiliate marketing, most affiliates focus on earning commissions by generating sales for a product owner. For example, you place a link on your website, if a person clicks the link and then buys the product or service, you get paid.

However, that’s not the only way to do it.

You can also get paid just for sending leads to the advertiser, regardless of whether the prospect buys or not. These types of programs are called pay per lead affiliate programs (PPL).

In most cases, PPL programs pay a small amount, but the good ones can convert into regular sales for you because you don’t need the person to buy anything in order for you to get paid. Having said that, some PPL programs pay substantially high commissions, some as high as $150 per lead, as you will see in this article.

Pay per lead programs are also sometimes referred to as Cost Per Lead (CPL). If the visitor is also required to perform an action in order for you to receive your commission, then the program will be referred to as a Cost Per Action (CPA) program. Typically, the action will be something simple like signing up for a free trial, submitting an email address, or completing a survey, for example.

Why Promote PPL Offers?

You might be thinking that a lot of PPL offers are not worth promoting because they pay low commissions, but this is not the right way to look at it.

If you only promote high ticket offers then your sales will be more infrequent, even if it’s a good offer. On top of that, you will also need some sales skills to present high ticket offers effectively in order to make consistent sales.

Promoting a few good PPL offers that convert well will help you to make steady and consistent sales month to month.

A good way to think about it is to tailor your affiliate marketing strategy to include a mix of a few good high ticket offers, some recurring programs, and some PPL offers. That way you can make steady sales from the PPL offers, build up a recurring income with your rebill programs, and also scoop up some high commissions along the way. Once you’ve learned other sales and copywriting skills, then you can think about focusing more of your time on high ticket offers if you want to.

Affiliate marketing is becoming more popular every year, with increased interest of around 200% since 2015. So, with more affiliates joining the game it makes sense to give yourself the best chance to make steady commissions and promote a few PPL offers too.

Best Affiliate Programs That Pay Per Lead

There are a ton of PPL and CPA offers out there, however, it can be hard to find a lot of the good ones. When you come across them yourself without a recommendation, it can be hard to know if they will actually convert once you start promoting them.

Some of the best PPL programs I have promoted took me years to find. So, in this article, I have listed some of the best pay per lead affiliate programs I have come across to save you time searching the web.

PPL SMB Affiliate Programs

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a great piece of software that allows you to build sales funnels, landing pages, receive payments for your own products and services, recruit affiliates, and build an email list.

ClickFunnels also has a great affiliate program too.

Although their affiliate tracking has known to be a little off in the past, they are still a great product to promote, because their products are massively popular, and you also have the chance to make some pretty sizeable commissions.

Promoting a few of their low-ticket offers such as their marketing books (DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, Traffic Secrets, and Copywriting Secrets) will pay you $1 per lead.

This doesn’t sound like much, but once you’ve referred that lead, you will also earn commissions on anything the customer buys on the back end of the funnel.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

Example 1

You get $1 for promoting Copywriting Secrets → Customer later buys Funnel Scripts at $797 and you earn $297 commission on the Funnel Scripts sale.

Example 2

You get $1 for promoting DotCom Secrets → customer later buys the ClickFunnels software at $99 or $297 per month and earn 30-40% recurring commission on this sale every single month.

Commission rate: Various – $1 on books, 20% on selected products for new affiliates and upsells, 30-40% on all products, upsells, and rebills for affiliates who have met specific criteria.

Cookie duration: Lifetime sticky cookie

Affiliate Network: Private

Sign up here

Shareasale

Shareasale is one of the biggest and most reputable affiliate networks out there and is also one of my personal favorites to work with.

Shareasale caters to a wide variety of niches and has a huge range of products. Typically products are either physical, software or service-related. As an example, you can find anything from mattresses to web hosting services, so it’s a pretty varied list.

You will get $30 for referring other affiliates to Shareasale, and once that affiliate has earned their first $20 on the platform. If you refer a merchant then you will get $150 once the merchant has made their first $100, or once they have been on the network for 6 months, whichever comes first.

Commission rate: $30 affiliate referral and $150 for a merchant referral

Cookie duration: 365 days

Affiliate Network: Shareasale

Sign up here

FreshWorks

FreshWorks, formerly FreshDesk, is a well-known customer relations management (CRM) software service that helps you to provide great customer support if you are selling your own products. I used FreshWorks a few years ago on a previous website where we were also selling our own products, so I can vouch that it’s a great service.

FreshWorks is designed for small and medium-sized businesses and supports various communication channels, including phone, email, website, and social media.

As an affiliate, you can earn $5 per lead, and a further 15% recurring commissions over the first year from your referrals that go on to sign up for a paid account.

Commission rate: $5 per lead, an additional 15% on sales

Cookie duration:

Affiliate Network: Private

Sign up here

Rankpay

Rankpay is essentially an SEO service. However, you only pay them if they are successful in ranking your site. Just tell them what keywords you want to rank for and they will try to make it happen for you.

Commission rate: $25-$50 per referral

Cookie duration:

Affiliate Network: Shareasale

Sign up here

Grammarly

Grammarly is one of the leading online spelling, punctuation, and plagiarism checkers on the market. Many businesses, content writers, and bloggers use it on a daily basis to help them craft content.

Grammarly is known to convert very well and has an average conversion rate of 20-30%. So once you get people to click on your links you should be able to make sales pretty easily.

As an affiliate, you will earn $0.20 per referral and $20 per sign up.

Commission rate: $0.20 per lead, $20 per sign up

Cookie duration: 90 days

Affiliate Network: Tune

Sign up here

Canva

Canva is a go-to graphic design tool for many online marketers, bloggers, influencers, and business owners. You can use it to create all kinds of graphics from logos, social media posts, banners, infographics, and more. One of the reasons it’s so popular is because anyone with no design experience can use it and quickly make awesome-looking graphics.

Promoting Canva can earn you $6.50 per lead, or, per free sign up you refer, and 25% on paid accounts. You also get 100% commission on the first month of the paid plan.

Commission rate: $6.50, 25% on paid plans

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: Impact Radius

Sign up here

ConstantContact

ConstantContact is one of the oldest email autoresponders on the market, with over 20 years of experience. Small and medium-sized businesses use ConstantContact to help grow their email list, support their customers, and market their products.

If you refer someone for a free trial then you’ll earn $5 for the lead. If your referral goes on to open a paid account then you’ll get an additional $105, which is pretty sweet!

Commission rate: $5 per lead, $105 per upgrade to a paid account

Cookie duration: 45-75 days

Affiliate Network: FlexOffers

Sign up here

Merchant Equipment Store

The Merchant Equipment Store provides businesses with the ability to accept credit card payments through their payment processing equipment. The Merchant Equipment Store is popular among small and medium-sized businesses because their prices are very close to those set at wholesale.

Affiliates promoting this offer will receive $20 per lead, and an additional 5% on any purchases that are made.

Commission rate: $20 per lead, 5% per sale

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: Shareasale

Sign up here

PPL Financial Affiliate Programs

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a useful piece of software that allows you to manage and track all your financial activities so you can budget effectively and plan for important things like buying a house, saving for your kid’s education, or planning your retirement.

This is a great one to promote if it fits your niche because you can earn a cool $50-$100 just for referring a lead.

However, there is a caveat to this.

Your referral will also need to hook up at least $100,000 worth of assets to their tracking software in order for you to qualify for the commission. This sounds like a lot, but it’s really not much if your referral is going to include things like their 401K, savings, and any equity that they have in their home.

Commission rate: $50-$100

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: FlexOffers

Sign up here

CIT Bank

CIT Bank is a bank that only operates online. They offer very attractive savings products and an easy way to shop.

CIT Bank provides an easy to use eChecking account, which allows you to easily pay your bills and access your cash from their mobile app. People are also attracted to CIT Bank because they can also earn interest with no monthly fees.

As an affiliate you can earn up to $100 per referral, which is great for a pay per lead program.

Commission rate: $100

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: CJ Affiliate

Sign up here

National Debt Relief

As you probably would have already guessed, National Debt Relief helps people to get out of debt, but they do it without using loans or encouraging you to file for bankruptcy.

If you want to promote this offer then expect to earn $27.50 for every qualifying lead you can send their way.

Commission rate: $27.50

Cookie duration: 60 days

Affiliate Network: Shareasale

Sign up here

PPL Insurance Affiliate Programs

Hiscox

Hiscox is a US insurance company for small businesses that provide customized policies to their customers.

They cover all the necessities including, professional liability, general liability, cybersecurity, business owner policies, and short-term liability.

Promoting Hiscox as an affiliate, your efforts can bring you $25 per referral who generates a quote through your link.

Commission rate: $25 per lead

Cookie duration: 7 days

Affiliate Network: CJ Affiliate

Sign up here

PPL Education Affiliate Programs

Skillshare

In you’re not already familiar with Skillshare, it’s an online learning platform where people can go to access both free and paid courses. Skillshare has all kinds of courses on a variety of topics like business skills, marketing, design, art, photography, writing, and more.

The classes are taught by real experts in their field, so you can be confident you are referring people to a platform where they will actually learn good skills taught by people who know what they are doing.

As an affiliate you will receive $10 per lead, that is, as long as a person signs up for a free trial then you will get paid.

Commission rate: $10

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: Impact Radius

Sign up here

CreativeLive

CreativeLive is another online learning platform with well over 1,500 courses. Like Skillshare, CreativeLive has both free and paid courses, many of which are taught by some very noteworthy people including Lewis Howes, Tim Ferriss, Mel Robbins, Ben Greenfield, and Gary Vaynerchuk.

When you refer someone to CreativeLive you’ll earn $1 for a free trial, 20% on the first-course purchase, and 10% on all future purchases.

Commission rate: $1 per lead, 20% for the first paid course, 10% on future courses

Cookie duration: 30 days

Affiliate Network: Shareasale

Sign up here

PPL Side Hustle Affiliate Programs

SwagBucks

SwagBucks is a platform where people can make some money for watching videos. However, customers need to be in either the US, Australia, UK, Ireland, or Canada to take part. Fortunately, you do not need to be in one of these countries if you want to promote SwagBucks as an affiliate.

Affiliates earn $3 for every qualified lead they send, so not too bad for a pay per lead program.

Commission rate: $3 per lead

Cookie duration:

Affiliate Network: FlexOffers, Impact Radius

Sign up here

Best Pay Per Lead Affiliate Programs – Final Thoughts

There are loads of great offers out there, and fortunately, with PPL or CPA offers, you don’t need to rely on making a sale in order to get paid.

Including a few good pay per lead affiliate programs into your marketing strategy can help you earn some nice commissions regularly and build up a healthy affiliate income.

Disclaimer: Please be aware that I may receive commissions when you click some of the links in this article and then decide to make a purchase. If you do follow one of my links and purchase a product, thanks! It means a lot to me, and any commissions I do make from this blog enables me to continue to provide you with all this awesome, free content. However, any commissions I do receive does not affect my reviews and comparisons. If I think a product is sub-standard I will either say so in the article or I will not feature it on my blog. I try my best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.

[money-deck]

How to generate traffic??Similar web Review

SimilarWebWhat Is SimilarWeb?

According to S-EDUCATE SimilarWeb is a tool that estimates the total amount of traffic different websites get. It allows you to see competitors’ top traffic sources, broken down into six major categories, including referring sites, social traffic, and top search keywords.

What Makes SimilarWeb Useful?

Even though SimilarWeb isn’t 100% accurate, it gives you the ability to see your competitors’ traffic sources.Which is SUPER valuable to anyone doing SEO or content marketing.

It’s also a quick way to see who the largest players in your space are, and to get a sense for their respective sizes.

And you can use SimilarWeb, to see more granular detail into, for example, exactly which referral sources are most important among your competitors or in your industry.

If you upgrade to SimilarWeb Pro, you get access to a host of features, including device distribution, audience info and traffic share from various social media networks.

Key FeaturesTraffic Overview

Even if the “Traffic Overview” section were the only thing SimilarWeb offered, it would still be worth using.

Start by going to similarweb.com and entering any URL in the search box. (Pro Tip: You can also see SimilarWeb data for any website you’re visiting in just one click by setting up a custom bookmarklet or installing the SimilarWeb Chrome extension. This is super helpful if you’re doing a lot of competitive analysis.

With that, here’s exactly what to pay attention to in this section.

Total Visits

The “Total Visits” graph lets you see approximately how much traffic a given site has gotten over the past month. And a trendline of that site’s traffic over the past 6 months.

In my experience, this data is pretty accurate. Not in the sense that it lets you know exactly how many visits another site gets every month.

But it’s accurate in the sense that it’s relatively accurate for measuring traffic levels between sites.

(Kind of like Alexa rankings)

For example, look at the traffic stats for my site and Moz.

Moz is a giant website with 100+ employees. They’ve been around for almost 15 years. We’re a small blog with a small team. Which is why their web traffic levels dwarf mine.

Do they actually get 3.12M visitors per month? Who knows?

But this report tells me that they get a heck of a lot more traffic than I do. And it is probably something like 4x more. So in that sense, this number is pretty spot on.

Why is this data useful?

Well, let’s say you’re entering a brand new niche. Or you just took on a client that’s in a space that you’re not familiar with. This report will let you know where you stand in that industry.

Without this competitive intelligence data from SimilarWeb this info would be impossible to know.

Engagement Metrics

You can also see engagement metrics like average visit duration, page views, and bounce rate.

Again: you have to take this data with a grain of salt. I wouldn’t use this data to say: “Site A has a bounce rate of exactly 72.5%. That’s 10.5% better than our website”.

That said:

If you do see that a competing site has a way better bounce rate than you do, it might be a sign that there’s room for you to improve.

For example, according to SimilarWeb, my site’s bounce rate is 69.28%.

If your bounce rate is 70.35%, you’re in the same ballpark. But if your bounce rate is 88.52% then this could be a sign that my site is doing a better job of keeping visitors engaged.

Traffic Sources

The “Traffic Sources” chart is probably the most important part of this section

It shows the breakdown of what percentage of a site’s traffic comes from each of these channels: Direct, Referrals, Search, Social, Email, and Display Advertising. This is incredibly useful information you can use to help determine where you should focus your content marketing efforts.

For example, let’s say you’re about to enter the SEO and content marketing space. And you’re looking to go head-to-head with my blog.

Well, your first step would be to see what channels are working best for me.

That way, you can start to make inroads there.

Another approach is to look at channels that a competitor is ignoring. Then, double down on that channel.

For example, you can see that I’m not running any display ads.

Which might be an opportunity for you to swoop in and get traffic from that channel. It’s the same story with social. According to SimilarWeb, social makes up around 3% of my traffic. That’s an opportunity for you to do more on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Referrals

I LOVE SimilarWeb’s “Referrals” feature.

Let me show you why.

Well, you can see the % of the site’s overall traffic that is coming from referral traffic.

(“Referral traffic” basically means any non-ad traffic coming from individual sites that aren’t search engines or social media).

Honestly, this data isn’t super actionable. But it’s still something to note.

The two most helpful pieces of data in this section are…

Top Referring Sites

This is the star of this section. It will show you the top 5 referring sites (or more if you buy the “Pro” version of SimilarWeb), including the % of traffic from each.

For content marketers, this can be a great way to find high-value link building opportunities, potential partners or online communities to start becoming active on.

It’s also an awesome way to find guest post opportunities.

For example, you can see that 8.88% of my referral traffic comes from Ahrefs.

Which means that a good chunk of my target audience must also read Ahrefs. Well, as it turns out, Ahrefs accepts guest posts.

So if you were looking to start a guest blogging campaign, Ahrefs would be one of the first sites to reach out to.

Top Destination Sites

This report can also reveal some interesting data.

While “Top Referring Sites” shows where the site’s visitors are coming from, “Top Destination Sites” shows how people leave the site you’re analyzing.

This shows you other sites that you want to get featured on. For example, you can see that 4.33% of my traffic leaves to go to Moz.com.

So if you were entering the digital marketing space, Moz would be another place you’d want to guest post on or get featured.

Search, Social and Display

The “Search,” “Social,” and “Display” sections take a closer look at some of the biggest traffic sources most websites get.

Search

Search is a massive chunk of most site’s traffic. In fact, according to SparkToro, Google accounts for 57% of all website traffic.

And according to Backlinko’s SimilarWeb report, 45.51% of my traffic comes from search.

Which is why spending some time to analyze what’s working for your competitor’s SEO is super helpful.

What makes SimilarWeb’s “Search” section awesome is that it shows you the top 5 search keywords (for both organic and paid search).

If you Google those keywords, you’ll be able to find out exactly which pieces of content are ranking for them, and then use the Skyscraper Technique to steal their search traffic.

Social

Social media traffic sources are also broken out by specific platform, so you can see which platforms are working best for your competitors.

Just like with the Traffic Sources report, you can use this data in two different ways. You can either dive head-first into the social media sites that your competitors are already active on.

Or you can use it to find untapped social sites that aren’t super competitive yet.

Display Advertising

This report shows you both the top publishers (sites) as well as the top ad networks being used for paid display ads and PPC, if any.

One thing to keep in mind here is that SimilarWeb doesn’t have access to Facebook ad traffic data.

Audience Interests

SimilarWeb’s “Audience” data focuses on what the site’s visitors do outside of that site itself.

Categories

You can see the categories of interests they have, based on their activity outside of the web. For example, the top category it shows for Backlinko’s audience is “Online Marketing,” followed by “Computers, Electronics and Technology.”

Sounds pretty accurate to me.

And if you analyze a health and fitness website, you’ll find that their interests tend to revolve around things like nutrition and sports.

Why is this helpful for content marketing?

Well, the foundation of any content strategy is to create content that’s going to help your target audience. And this report gives you a high-level overview of the types of things that they’re interested in.

Also Visited Websites

This is another report that I use all the time.

That’s because it gives you an idea of the sites that your audience tends to hang out on.

For example, if you look at this report for Twitch.tv, you can see that their users tend to spend a lot of time on YouTube, Steam and Reddit.

So if you were setting up a Twitch competitor, these are the sites that you’d want to focus on.

You can also look at this information for your own site. That way, you get a list of related sites you might want to collaborate with, advertise on, or perhaps promote to your own audience as an affiliate.

Word Cloud

Finally, this section includes a word cloud of the topics that SimilarWeb thinks are the most relevant to the site’s visitors.

Don’t expect surgical accuracy here. But it adds some color to the “Categories” list. For example, one of the interest categories for Backlinko is: “Computers Electronics And Technology > Computers Electronics And Technology”.

What does that mean in practical terms? I have no idea.

But the word cloud gives you terms that help you understand what these folks are actually into.

Competitors & Similar Sites

This report is a fast way to figure out who your competitors are. For example, if you look at the SimilarWeb report for Backlinko, you get 10 sites that I compete with.

As someone that’s actually in this space, I can tell you firsthand that this list is pretty much 100% spot on. These are the exact sites that I find myself up against when it comes to SEO, video marketing, and social media.

Seeing who your competitors are is helpful. But how do you take action on this kind of market intelligence?

Well, you can check out the landscape of what all the top sites in your niche are doing … and try to do the opposite. Sometimes, just being different is the most important thing you can do. Early on with Backlinko, I decided to focus on super in-depth, long-form content. My posts were easily 5 or 10 times longer than most pieces of content in the SEO industry. It became a big differentiator (and still is today).

You can also use this report to find guest posting or other collaboration opportunities. So-called “competitors” can work together to create something much better than if they’d only done it by themselves.

Related Mobile Apps

This section shows you mobile apps that your competitors have, along with ratings and reviews.

[genelmag]

7 Tips to Help Grow Your Twitch Channel

Here’s a hint: it takes hard work and consistency.

It seems as if everyone wants to be a professional Twitch streamer nowadays. And why not? Who doesn’t want to make a career out of doing what they love? The problem is, people think that growing your Twitch following and viewership is as easy as being good at the game you’re playing. Or, be a woman with visible cleavage, as some naively think because they are frustrated and need something or someone to blame for their own lack of success. Sex appeal may help some, but it really takes much more than that.

Luckily, Twitch provides guides, tools, extensions, and more to assist their users in their Twitch streaming experience.

Last year, Ge’NeL Magazine’s Public Relations Director, CtrlAltQuin, shared her journey to making Twitch Affiliate. One year later, Quin has over 2,000 followers, averages 40+ viewers, has a loyal and active community and over 100 subscribers.

Here are a few tips and tricks to help you grow your Twitch channel.

1. Set a schedule and be consistent.

Figure out the day(s) and times that work best for you to stream. This is extremely important if your goal is to grow. You want to be consistent so that viewers know what time they can watch you. Something to keep in mind: people will literally carve out time in their schedules to watch streams. They are loyal fans to specific streamers. Consistency is one of the key ingredients to building a community and loyal fan base.

2. Set realistic goals for yourself.

Gleam.io recommends making your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. The SMART framework is a common sense strategy used across many industries and interests.

Set your goals in short, specific increments that are realistic to the world around you. Example: I’m gonna have x amount of followers by x date.

Just don’t overdo it. Be realistic. If you just started streaming, and you set your goal to have 1000 followers by the week’s or even month’s end, you’re setting yourself up for a huge disappointment.

3. Decide what type of value you want to bring to viewers.

Being great at a game and enjoying gameplay is great. But why should anyone watch you? Do you share tips and tricks to help gamers improve? Are you a comedic gamer? Do you do playthroughs and reviews of newly released games? If you were browsing Twitch for streamers to watch, why would YOU stop at your channel and watch? “Because I’m awesome at games” is not a good enough answer.

4. Network with other content creators and gamer communities.

When we say network, we do not mean begging for “follow 4 follow” in other people’s channels or Discord communities. That’s actually pretty lame and you’ll become known as the annoying dude/chick always in people’s channels begging. Networking means interacting with others, being genuinely active in communities. FYI: The best social media platform to network with other streamers and gamers outside of Twitch is Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, many games developers are active on Twitter. Reach out to indie games developers. Vicarious PR represents many indie game developers and connects them to influencers. As with any business, you want to build relationships. And relationships in any form take work. StreamSentials goes into more detail on techniques for networking in the world of Twitch.

5. Be engaged with your viewers.

Many people who want to stream worry that they are not personable or that they aren’t good with interacting with others. Well, if streaming is something you want to do, there are a few methods that can help you to be more engaging with your audience.

Practice talking to yourself while gaming. It sounds silly, but you will likely be spending some time with 0 viewers and a quiet chat. Talk yourself through the game. Read the dialogue.

Read your audience’s chat aloud.

Use Twitter as a way to keep the conversation with your viewers going after the stream. Also, Streamlabs OBS allows you to automatically tweet to your followers when you are going live.

Talking to strangers can be scary. We know. Invite your friends to come hang out with you in your channel and remind them and your audience to take advantage of the Twitch Prime loot for popular games like Fortnite, Rocket League, League of Legends, and more.

6. Spruce up your channel with graphics.

Using graphics displays is a great way to share info about you and your channel. The basic graphic panels include About Me, Schedule, and Social Media. Of course, you can add more graphics panels to make your channel unique and personal. There are plenty of free graphics panels and overlays available through Streamlabs. You can also find graphic artists through networking (there’s that word again).

7. Play games that aren’t already overplayed.

Play what you enjoy. However, playing popular games will make it more difficult for you to stand out as a streamer. According to Twitch Metrics, the most streamed video games on Twitch are Fortnite with 4,898 average live channels in the last 30 days, League of Legends with 3,009 average live channels, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with 2,634 average live channels.

If you haven’t already made it to Twitch Affiliate, don’t worry, it will happen. Remember, success for you may mean something completely different for someone else. That’s why it’s important to set realistic goals that are relevant and true to you. If you want to make streaming your career, you have to treat it like a career. Be professional, learn at least the basics of digital marketing as an influencer. Leverage social media platforms.

Are you a Twitch streamer? What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten?