Five Approaches to Affiliate Marketing

As a new affiliate, one of the first things you’ll want to know where and how to promote your affiliate link. Today we’ll cover several options and discuss the merits of each method.

1. Direct Links via PPC Advertising If you use PPC advertising, you can embed your affiliate to the ad and send the prospect directly to the merchant’s site. This is a **really** lazy thing to do though. You might make a few sales, but it’s far better to approach the process as outlined in tactic #2.
2. Linking to Your 'Affiliate Enhanced' page via PPC's Place ads for your target keywords and direct the prospects to your capture page created with our AffiliateEnhancer software - Greet them with an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter or to download a special report. This is **Vital** because once you’ve collected a prospect’s email address, they are yours to market to on a repeat basis.
3. Build Content Focused Sites This approach aims for long term traffic through search engine optimization. You’ll need to publish content related to the type of product you’re trying to sell. Searchers will be drawn in by informative articles. You’re affiliate links will be sprinkled discreetly across the site.
4. Advertise in E-Zines This is a good method to use if you can find targeted lists for your product. E- zine ads can be purchased in most cases, and in other cases you can snatch them up for free by bartering with the list owner. Remember, rather than link directly to the affiliate site use your Affiliate Enhanced page to capture subscribers and build your list. Not only will this allow you to follow up and convert more sale (for fr^ee) but it will also enable you to sheild your affiliate link.
5. Purchase text link or banner advertising on high traffic sites This type of advertising isn’t quite as popular as it used to be. It is most effective when you can find high traffic sites for smaller niche subjects. These sites tend to focus heavily on content and run only a handful of ads on site. Space is limited and rates are likely to be at a premium.

Beating the Odds

This will be a cold, hard dose of truth, but you need to know the facts. The majority of people who go into affiliate marketing fail to break even. Some people will earn thousands in this business, while others will struggle to generate even a few hundred in sales per month.

Affiliate marketing is very competitive and cut-throat. You’ve got to stay on your toes to win in this game. While I can’t guarantee your success, I can provide you with some fundamental knowledge that just might help you beat the odds.

Get ready to learn how to play hardball with the super affiliates.

1. Never Stop Searching for Profitable Keywords Successful affiliates are never satisfied with the status quo. Even if you endured hours sweat producing research to find your target keywords, keep on searching out new ones and adding them to your list.
2. Become Obsessed with Testing and Tracking If you aren’t testing and tracking absolutely everything – and I mean everything from your keywords, your ppc ads, your web site copy and any thing else you can think of to test/track, the odds are stacked against you.Successful affiliates are maniacal about testing and tracking every detail of their campaigns. They are details oriented and use all of their collected data to refine their entire system on a day to day basis. You might want to take a look at an amazing software tool called MyClickSpy for more info: http://www.infoclicks.co.uk/mcs/
3. Innovate and Update Constantly Keep your approach fresh by testing new conversion tactics. If you rely on PPC engines for advertising, start throwing in e-zine advertising into the mix. If that doesn’t produce the desired results, investigate banner ads, classified ads, message boards, offline media and anything else you can think of to get your message across. Don’t rely on one conversion channel. If you send your prospects direct to the merchant, change up your campaign and start sending leads to your special capture page created with our Affiliate Enhancer software and start collecting email addresses. Experiment with your content and your web copy. Try out different headlines. Never settle for the familiar. Tweak everything until you’ve squeezed the maximum conversion power out of it.
4. Pay Attention to the Industry and Communicate with Other Affiliates The world of affiliate marketing changes every day. There is always a new tactic to implement, a change in the rules at one advertising service or another, a serious technology failure at one of your merchant’s sites and so on.
   

Even though affiliate marketers are rabidly competitive group, they are also quite helpful and willing to trade information and tips with one another. You should bookmark the following sites and make a point of visiting them weekly if not daily :

http://www.associateprograms.com/

http://www.webmasterworld.com/

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6

http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com/