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.”

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!

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.”

(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!

Hiya!

If you are still reading this, you have either become an affiliate marketer or are strongly considering it.  Take that first step if you haven’t already and sign up with an affiliate program.  One of the best I have found is the SFI program, and you will get a special bonus not offered anywhere else when you sign up through the following link:

http://www.internetmarketersdreamsite.com/SFI

All the steps of affiliate marketing are simple and easy.  Places to advertise are limited only by your imagination.  The bonus offered when you sign up using the above link provides a detailed step-by-step plan with instructions for getting a good start in affiliate marketing.  The plan is extremely helpful for the brand-new affiliate marketer and is designed to help you become comfortable with marketing as an SFI affiliate.

If you would like to see more information first, check out the Internet Marketers Dream Site.

Keep watching as there will be a great new series of posts coming up.  The next topic is “Why People Fail in Affiliate Marketing.”  Along with explaining the most common reasons you may not be seeing good results in your marketing efforts, it will also offer suggestions and helpful information on what you can do to succeed!

Succeed!

Savannah Kruse

3. Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is better to recommend a product to someone you know than to try “cold selling” to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance of providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of trust and value with your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

4. If you are using Pay Per Click ads, make sure they are strong and effective ads. PPC search engines can be an effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can earn income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture.  Monitor them to see which ads are most cost-effective.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks.

2. Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks.  Many people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may need to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors without first collecting their contact information, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are four powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions.

1. Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short reports related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

Watch for parts 2 and 3 of this series to learn more about how to boost your affiliate commissions!