some affiliate marketing tips

[melvin]

Choose a topic you know. The most common question asked by people new to affiliate marketing is "What should I start with?" We believe it is best to start with an area you know well. Doing this may not be the best converting, provide you with the highest commission, or even be the best managed program. But it is easy for you to build a site, and it's a subject you know and are interested in. That means you can add your own personal touch and opinions to the site. If you try to build your first site from something in which you have no personal interest, the site soon becomes a painful and boring task. Stick with what you know initially and then grow from there.

Banners, Banners, and More Banners. If success at affiliate marketing could be achieved from throwing up pages of banners - then the world would have many more millionaires. A site with pages of banners or rows banners stuffed under content, not only doesn't make a person want to click the banner; it also has the added bonus of making your site look pretty ugly.

There is no Best Merchant Program. Some people can succeed with a merchant where many others have failed. It is often true that some do poorly where others are making a fist full of dollars. Forums are full of posts that begin with, "My Sales this month for Merchant Program X are very poor." These same posts usually end with some one else posting, "Funny my sales are great." Remember that for your first site select a merchant based on what you know. In the early days, when you have just one small site, it will be easy to swap out all the links if the chosen merchant doesn't work out.

Use multiple merchants in the same niche. As suggested, select a merchant based on what you like, or better yet select a few. Promoting 3-4 merchants on the same site gives your site visitors a variety of destinations to choose from. Doing this provides you with data on what your visitors want to see, and can provide you with important information on how well the different merchants perform against each other when put head to head.

There is no Best Network. Another question commonly asked is, "What is the best network?" Everyone has their own reply to this question, and ultimately there is no best answer. This is especially true when you consider that many great programs don't even belong to a network at all. Every network has its strong points. Make your network selection based on the tools it provides for you. Also take into consideration if the network has the merchants you want to work with. Sometimes joining an undesirable Network is necessary because they have a merchant you really want to sign up with. Our recommendation is to try a merchant from all the main networks, see what works for you, and then focus your time accordingly.

What are Content Sites. If you visit affiliate marketing forums you'll hear people talk about "content sites." These are sites that provide potentially educational and topical content about the products they are promoting, or appear to promote products as a side focus. Content sites are easier to build when you know about the products you are promoting, or the merchant makes content available to you. However, don't forget the goal of your site is to make your site visitors click off of your site onto a merchant's store. No click-through means no sale.

What are Data (Product Info) Sites. Data driven sites are generally limited to pure product data, prices, images, descriptions, there's no illusion of education here. It's all about promoting the product and making the visitor get off your site as fast as possible and onto the merchant's store. Data driven sites generally require access to data feeds and some knowledge of programming or access to software (or scripts) which can produce web pages from the data feeds.

[taki]

I have always found that article marketing worked for me no matter what I was trying to sell. A well written article that does not waste the person's time reading it will put more money in your pocket than anything else in my opinion.

[molly00000]

Very informative thread. I think search engine traffic is the most targeted traffic and one needs to build his website with the objective of ranking well in the search engines. He must be sure to include great product reviews on his website because many people are searching for that.

[TeresaCC]

If you are attempting to promote your own work or product, how risky is it to included related products on your site? I agree with content is king, but that alone won't get you a sale.

[princee18]

Yeah, only good content would not encourage traffic to your site. you have make the people aware about the contents on your site.

[tongyun]

Well written article with great content always worked with the print media and works will with the electronic media, Internet included, too. As previous posters have mentioned you have to get people to your site, but you have to have a compelling reason for them to stay. That's where a well written article with supreme content comes in.

[Postman]

The best way to drive some traffic to your affiliate program is to have a blog that well optimized for a certain keyword. You don’t need to spend money on another ppc campaign once you have achieved this.

[TeresaCC]

Viewers come to a site or blog for information. They want this information before they are wiling to part with their money to buy anything. If you give them that information ad make it interesting by adding your own style of delivering that information, they might not buy the first time they come to your site, but they will return. The more they return for information and entertainment they more they will be willing to buy your product.

[tongyun]

I also wanted to say that writing about what you know is much more beneficial than many people realize. If you know a subject, the thought process flows much more easily to the screen as your write your article. If you try to fake your way through, it often comes through in the writing.

[Postman]

Of course if you aren’t that knowledgeable yet then you have to do a lot of research first. Some people are just too lazy to do this. I have seen this on many blogs. They are just writing some shits.