7 Top Tips for Affiliate Marketers

The Top 7 Affiliate Marketing Tips

Affiliate Marketing is the ideal entry to Internet Marketing in general. After all, it’s the fairest system around: You promote the product, and you get a share of the profits. And that’s without having to stock, host, or support the product yourself…

1. First ensure that the product you choose to promote is paying you enough for the job. I’d say ensure the commission is at least 50%. The exception is the “bulk” type programs, such as perhaps eBay or Amazon, which only pay a small percentage but this can be made up in the sheer number of opportunities to sell. ClickBank is nearly always over 50%, other networks may vary.

2. Only promote products where you already have existing experience or at least an interest. If you have a site or list that covers a certain area, then this is easy. If you don’t that’s no problem, but having some knowledge of the products niche will help you find the right places to promote and allow you to get your enthusiasm across - and thus make those sales. Also consider buying the product, if you can, to provide a honest review.

3. Don’t just use the ads, graphics, templates etc that come with the product to help you promote it. Think outside the box and create your own materials to help you stand out from the crowd. Reviews, Blog Posts, Articles, E-Mail Series, or even a complete Website can work wonders. Some Affiliates just create a complete "Review" site for a niche - an ideal way to promote.

4. If you rely on Pay Per Click or paid-advertising to promote the product, ensure you direct this traffic to your own landing page so you can (a) use your own URL and (b) capture the e-mail address of this visitor. Watch out for Google's rules if using AdWords, a landing page MUST have content or be banned.

5. Try many different methods to promote the product, including Social Bookmarking, Writing Articles, Blog Posts, Offline Advertising (flyers, business cards, shop-window ads, newspaper ads), and more. Making sales relies on traffic, so use every technique you know.

6. Take a look at what your competitors are doing. Search for the product you are promoting, and figure out these other sites and doing business - then outdo them! A tool like the free SpyFu.Com can greatly assist in this. Seeing what keywords of techniques someone else uses can cut the learning curve drastically. After all, they've done all the work for you...

7. Check the competition carefully. Many competitors may mean the market is saturated for that particular item, none at all may mean it's not worth promoting - or it may mean you're the first to see it's potential. It's a careful balance. Google is your friend - search for your potential product promotion and see how many affiliates there are.