9 Affiliate Marketing Tips & Techniques For Beginners

The following techniques are practised by the very best affiliate marketers on the internet. They are tried and tested and you will do well to follow this advice.

Generally speaking the income split between affiliate marketers is indicated by the old 80/20 rule:

20% of all affiliates produce 80% of all income; while 80% only produce 20% of the income.

Which group would you prefer to be in?

Well, I’m sure you would definitely prefer to be in the 1st group, earning the 80%. Who wouldn’t?

By following these basic steps, you will find yourself getting a decent share of the 80%, like all the most successful marketers are getting.

1. Consumers are generally more aware of affiliates selling products on the internet these days, with a lot of people, being able to identify a url as an affiliate link. As a result there is a fair majority who prefer to go straight to the merchants main domain rather than the affiliate, with the outcome being that you do not get credit for the sale.

Savvy marketers’ utilise ‘cloaking’ links to help protect their affiliate link being compromised. By using a cloaking link the consumer can no longer identify the original domain of the website and thereby ensuring the hard working affiliate receives the commission for the sale.

2. By creating relevant and unique articles about your affiliate product or service it is a sure fire way to success for the average marketer. An informative article relating to your product niche can be published on the internet, ensuring massive distribution and establishing you as an ‘expert’ in your chosen field.

Your articles can also be downloaded and published by other webmasters, as long as your ‘Resource’ or ‘Bio’ box which includes links to your affiliate product is left intact. This will further increase your coverage and subsequent exposure to potential customers.

3. Successful affiliates carefully research and select niches which are popular with consumers. Once the niche (product or service) is selected, and by using articles and news feeds, you can generate a highly targeted and relevant website that provides an enjoyable and useful experience to your prospects.

4. The use of autoresponders is almost mandatory for anyone hoping to achieve some level of success on the internet. They allow you to pre-load a timed series of emails that can be triggered when a prospect requests additional information from your website. It would be expected that you have a separate group of messages that are relevant to each niche you are involved in.

You can purchase (or even use free) various autoresponders and host it yourself, although this can become quite tedious and expensive especially if you have a large list. Most marketer’s tend to use a 3rd party provider for their autoresponder requirements and it is advisable to research the market and select a provider that suits your needs and financial situation.

5. It’s a good idea to build your own web page/s to assist in pre-selling your chosen product. By creating review and/or testimonial pages, where you can provide your prospects with a forthright summary of your product or service. Most consumers generally prefer this ’soft’ method of selling than a direct ‘hard’ sell type page.

Most companies provide suitable content, text links and advertising materials which are embedded with your affiliate link that you are free to use on your website.

6. Another useful tool is to include an ‘opt-in’ box on your website. This provides prospects with the opportunity to enter their name and contact details in return for either some additional information, a free gift, report or any other suitable incentive you can think of.

This method allows you to build your own personal list of prospects that you can periodically follow up with even after they have clicked away from your site.

7. Advertising is an important consideration for any marketer. Pay Per Click advertising is a very productive way to promote your product or service. Some categories of PPC can be expensive, however with diligent research you can readily identify cost effective keywords.

The 2 main providers of PPC advertising are Google Adwords and Yahoo! Overture, but there are certainly some very viable alternative providers around if you take the time to look them up.

8. You need to pay special attention to the search engines. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is becoming more and more complex almost on a daily basis. Despite this, if you at least follow the basics, your website will slowly but surely improve its visibility to the search engines.

Probably the most critical and yet the most neglected method of SEO is the use of Title tags. It is imperative that an individual tag is created for every single page of your website - do not fall into the trap of propogating the one tag across every page.

9. Following on from #6, you need to fully utilise your own mailing lists that you have been steadily building. These lists are priceless as an ever increasing source of potential customers.

Use this list to regularly provide relevant information, special offers and many other things that would be viewed as ‘value added’. It is also a way to maintain a prospects interest in your product or service long after their initial enquiry.

If you understand and follow through with implementing the 9 points above, then you will most certainly be well on the way to building a successful career as an affiliate marketer.

So, What are you waiting for?

Are you looking for an affiliate product that will help you with all of the above. If so, then check out Google Snatch. It is an excelelnt product at an affordable price and it teaches you in a very simple manner exactly how to build and optimize your website to reap it’s full potential of affiliate sales.

Shelley Allen AKA The Dominator

The Dominator Dominates The Internet For Free!