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Persistence

The chances that you will make millions or even thousands of dollars overnight in internet or affiliate marketing are pretty close to zero.  If you did, congratulations!  Keep doing exactly what you are doing!

If not, remember that you are building a business, and that most businesses take time to develop solid ongoing profits.  Also remember that when you are building a business on little to no cash outlay, it will probably take more time than if you have tons of money to throw at research and advertising.

Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in an affiliate program without understanding the business.  When they don’t get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others.

The most successful internet and affiliate marketers have persistence as their main tool.  They keep trying!  They revamp old techniques and implement new ones.  They continue posting ads week after week, and keep learning everything possible about how to improve their businesses.

Don’t expect to get rich in an instant, and don’t allow yourself to feel like a failure because you aren’t suddenly wealthy.  Remember those hyped-up ads discussed in Part IV?  Realize that claims of overnight riches are seldom what they seem to be.  Even the few who have accomplished such great feats have usually done so only after many years of building a reputation and a loyal customer base.

If your first attempts did not pay off, be persistent!  Work on your advertising strategies, learn all you can, and keep improving your techniques, web sites, and web pages.  Remember that the most successful internet and affiliate marketers persevered.  The best marketers seem to agree that time and repeated exposure got them where they are today – earning a comfortable full time living from the internet.

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Education

If you are reading this blog, you have probably already realized the value education and knowledge can provide when you are an affiliate marketer.

Continue to spend time educating yourself in whatever fashion works best for you.  It will help you improve your current marketing strategies and learn about new techniques.

Advertising and marketing are just one piece of affiliate marketing, and these alone are huge areas.  Indeed, many colleges offer degrees related to this topic alone, and while you may not wish to gain a four year degree in the area, it is worth staying informed of new developments and tactics being used for web marketing.

If all you are concerned about is making huge money overnight, it will be quite apparent to your visitors.  Very few internet or affiliate marketers succeed when their main focus is on their bank account and not on their customer’s desires. 

Good affiliate marketers continue to grow by taking the time to learn the ins and outs of the business.  Continue to improve your knowledge, especially in such basic areas as advertising, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques.  Study the needs and wants of your customers.  Learn how different merchandisers compete with each other.

You may spend years learning how to be a better marketer, but isn’t it worth the time and effort if your sales keep increasing with your knowledge?

Keep watching for Part VII, “Persistence.”

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Domain Names

Selecting a good domain name is crucial to your success when using a web site for affiliate marketing.

Before you decide on a domain name, look at how it relates to what you are going to promote.  You may need to be creative in finding a domain name that is relevant to your product or program because many domain names are already in use.  Keep trying!  Eventually you will find something catchy and relevant.

A great site that does not have an appropriate domain name may feature the exact products the customer is looking for, but the customer might think the site is not relevant and so won’t visit the site.

Try to avoid special characters in your domain name, such as dashes.  If you are considering using a number as part of your domain name, be sure it makes sense and is memorable.  It is better to avoid using a number to replace a word in your domain name.

For example, 1stBank and FirstBank might both sound the same when read aloud, but chances are when a visitor is working to remember your site name, they will type in FirstBank before they will try 1stBank.  This is even more important when you are catering to an international audience.

A domain name that is catchy, tells potential site visitors something about what they might find on the site, and is easy to remember and type will not only make it easier for a visitor to return, but also makes it easier for them to tell their friends about.

Word of mouth advertising is often the best form of advertising you can get, so do everything you can to make it easy for others to do this.

Keep watching for Part VI, “Education.”

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The Web Site

As an affiliate marketer, you should plan your site in advance.  From domain name to design, lay-out, content, and ads, you need to have a good idea who your customer is and what they want to see.

Web sites with high quality contents – relevant keywords and informative content about the product – will produce far more customers than empty hyped-up advertisements.

Good content improves traffic to the site.  Sustain the interest of your site visitors, and not only you will get better sales, your visitors will refer others to your site.

Keep pages targeted to the interest of the visitor.  Regardless of what you are selling or promoting, keep the content relevant and relatively short.  Do you like wading through 10 screens of hype just to find out what the product is and what it costs?  Chances are, neither do your site visitors.

Instead of huge multi-screen ads or hype, keep your content short, eye-catching, and relevant.  If you want to elaborate on certain points, offer links in the text that will allow the visitor to view the information if they wish.

If you are using testimonials, put them on a sidebar so they won’t distract from the content of your ad.  If the testimonial is lengthy, use just a few pointed lines from it, and offer a link to “read the full testimonial” underneath the lines.

Look at the web site page from the point of view of the consumer.  If it doesn’t appeal to you, why would it appeal to your potential customer?

Make sure you have a place on the page where the user can click to purchase the item!  This seems like it should go without needing to be said, but far too many ads have the purchase link buried in too much ad copy.

One of the worst ads I have personally seen had decent product info, but it was displayed on an extremely lengthy page.  After reading the copy, I was quite interested in the book, but instead of a link to purchase at the end of the ad, all that was offered was a box requesting my name and email.  Not only did the person fail to make a sale, I was so annoyed with the tactic that I refuse to even look at any more ads from them.

Keep watching for Part V, “Domain Names.”

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Preparation

The largest part of preparation is research.  Since you are marketing on the web, use it to do some research.  Much of your research can be done for free, and preparing yourself ahead of time can both save you time and help you earn money you might otherwise not be making.

Make sure that the affiliate program you are advertising for handles products and services that match your customer’s interests.  Likewise, make sure you are not trying to market too many categories of items from one web site or web page.

If you are marketing more than one item or category, ask yourself if the products or categories are related.  Categories may be more diverse depending on your audience.

For example, if you are marketing cosmetics, you probably won’t want to combine home repair and hardware items into the same site.  You definitely don’t want to combine them into the same web page.  Why?  Because it makes it much more difficult to target the audience you are seeking for your products.

On the other hand, if you are marketing video games, you may also want to include a link or product for strategy guides for the video games.  You could also include links to other related merchandise, such as t-shirts featuring video game images.

You can get valuable information by joining or reading forums or discussion groups targeted to the product area you are marketing.  You may get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on choosing the best merchants, which products have a high conversion rate, and how to advertise in a fashion that reaches customers who are interested in these products.

Keep watching for Part IV, “The Web Site.”

Join the affiliate program in good financial condition!  This company is debt-free and highly liquid.  As a personal bonus, I include a specialized get started plan designed just for this affiliate program when you sign up, along with a LOT of other benefits to help you succeed!

I want to join and get my bonus now!

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Advertising

The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect simply because they are not doing any advertising, or are not doing enough advertising.

This doesn’t mean you need to spend a ton of money.  There are many web sites that offer free advertising, so take advantage of it!  Just a few minutes a day can show results.  Can you afford to turn off that TV show you aren’t really interested in anyway and spend the time placing free ads?  Can you afford not to?

Affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as directing customers to the business site.  You need to make sure you are targeting an interested audience, and do everything you can to engage the reader of the ad.

How do you do that?  First, make sure you are placing your ad in an appropriate category.  Second, select an ad title that is both eye-catching and relevant to your product or service.  Third, make sure the site or page you are sending the customer to is specific to what your ad text says.

For example, if you are selling a cosmetics product, you would select a category like “Health and Beauty” or “Beauty Products.”  Your ad title might read “Would you like to improve your appearance?” or “Do you want more sex appeal?”  Finally, make sure you send them to the page that specifically shows the product you mention in your ad text, e.g. foundation, blush, moisturizing lipstick, etc.

Keep watching for Part III, “Preparation.”

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(And more importantly, how you can succeed!)

Thousands of people are lured into affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income on the Internet.

 It’s a fair deal between the merchandiser and affiliates. Both of you benefit from each sale.  As with all business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate’s advertising, promoting and selling strategies.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient.

So why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing?

Some of the main reasons people fail to see results include advertising, preparation, web site (if you are using one), domain name (if you are using a web site), education, and persistence.

The next few blog posts will dive into each of these reasons in more detail, so keep watching for some great tips on how to improve your affiliate marketing tactics!