Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs are a good way to start your business. They do not need any payment systems or even a website to start promoting them.  Many people start their businesses with these programs but few are really successful. This is because many people do not understand how to market affiliate programs successfully.

There are a few points to remember when building your business with affiliate programs. They are deceptively easy. Affiliate marketing like everything in business takes a little skill to succeed. These skills are easily learnt and you can become a very successful affiliate if you take the time and effort to become an affiliate expert.

Choosing the right program: firstly take time to choose the right affiliate programs. Take into consideration

The program should appeal to your specific market
They should be a reputable company-not just a fly by night-“here today gone tomorrow’ business. Research this well.
They should have good tracking systems to check your sales and commissions real time.
Commissions should be good and paid on time
The payout limit should not be too high
Good support and training

Marketing:

Building your own website for promotion: One of the key points of success for affiliate marketing is having your own website. Do not rely on mirror sites donated by your sponsor. You will seriously limit your marketing to just direct marketing and this can become quite expensive. The best websites for affiliate programs are theme content websites.

These are websites built around a theme or special market.  The most profitable way to do this is to find a niche or specialized market.  This should have high demand and low supply. You will make your market keyword your main theme then join affiliate programs that are related to it. For instance if health and nutrition are the main focus of your business then this will be your theme. You will join some affiliate programs related to this topic, or theme. A theme website allows you to promote several affiliate programs to the same market.

Driving highly targeted traffic: When you build your own website you can open the doors to a lot of free and cheap website promotion. Remember to start small track and rest to find the best areas of advertising and promotion for your particular business. You will do this by:

Search engines
Linking
Articles distribution
Google Adwords
Direct marketing

Pre selling not selling- building content: The biggest mistake many affiliate marketers make is to sell not presell. Let your sponsor do the selling that is what his home page is for. If you sell to your visitor then send him to your sponsor’s sales page he will not be happy and will very likely not buy, because nobody likes being sold to and especially not x2. A better alternative is to presell, prepare and warm your visitor for the sale. You can do this in a variety of ways.

One of the most effective methods is informative content. This can take the form of info articles. Visitors love these and will return to your website to check out your articles if you have new ones published at regular intervals.

Reviews are also popular. Do not hype these just tell it how it is. Readers appreciate honesty and will be more inclined to check it out.
You can make a special landing page or pages for your sponsor if they have multiple related products and services to sell. You can use this for different promotions.

Your job with preselling is to get your visitor to click through. You will do this by making them curious to find out more about your sponsor’s products or services.

Utilizing the Google ad words: Google Adwords are a good way to advertise, be careful to read all Google’s helpful tips. Words of caution keep your bids low and target your keywords well. Remember you pay for every click.

Using your own newsletter: to sell products and recruit affiliates (2nd tier). Publishing your own newsletter is very important for the growth of your business and affiliate marketing is no exception. With your own website you can do this easily. A newsletter will allow you to build your list of prospects and customers. You can presell with informative content and a few ads leading to your sponsor’s site. You can also recruit your subscribers to be your 2nd tier affiliates.

Ad swapping with related publications: As your newsletter grows you can swap ads and articles with other publishers. This is also a good way to increase subscribers.

Article distribution: Article distribution is a powerful way to bring highly targeted people to your site and increase subscribers for your newsletter. Info articles about your business topic and even some about certain products your sponsor is selling are very effective.

Passive income: You can also make a good income with your 2nd tier affiliates. Build an army of affiliates under you and when they sell anything you will get also get commission from your sponsor.

Resources: Allan Gardyne’s http://www.associateprograms.com this website has a huge amount of information and many programs to join.

With these tips you should be able to make a good living with affiliate programs. Remember you will not see results in a few days; you will need to work on your business seriously and hard. Try each program for at least 3 months before discarding it. Duplicate successes and learn from failures and you may well be the next “Super Affiliate.”

April 26, 2006 – 5:23 pm by Constantin Chersin