Sunday, March 16, 2008

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing on the Internet is possibly one of the most lucrative means to making money there is. Of course, you need a certain amount of knowledge in order to make large commission checks. The money will not start flowing in until you lay the groundwork for your success. This article is going to reveal four effective methods in setting the groundwork for selling large amounts of affiliate products without hassle. 1) Start with great content. Your website should offer content that is both relevant and useful to your target market. This will automatically inspire trust and respect with visitors. This first step is critical. If you have a site that you hastily throw together in order to make a buck, then you are better off not getting involved in affiliate marketing. People need to feel that you are respectable, trustworthy, and able before they will listen to your suggestions. Your content should prove your knowledge and experience and be of great value to your visitors. 2) Insert a soft sell of one or two affiliate products in the course of your content. A soft sell is exactly what it sounds like: To softly, passively promote a product. You should avoid sales pitch style promoting at all costs. This will turn people off and make them want to leave your site. Here's an example. Let's say your content is about lawn care, and you are marketing a fertilizer that does wonders for lawns. During the course of your well-written content all you have to do is mention the product and say that it has done great things for you. That's it. Anything else and you are getting into a sales pitch. Simply insert a quick blurb about the product in an appropriate part of your content and provide a link to the company that produces it. 3) Promote at least three affiliate products at once. It is important to diversify your affiliate products. This ensures a much more stable income, because it is produced by multiple sources. It is never a good idea to put all of your efforts into promoting a single product. This leaves you very vulnerable. If only one product is bringing in your entire income what happens if the company suddenly goes under or cuts the commission payouts in half? It would be disastrous to your cash flow. You would be left seeking out a new product and a new marketing scheme for it. This can be very difficult, especially if your whole site was geared toward promoting that one product. If on the other hand, you have three or more affiliate products regularly bringing in income it wouldn't be near as big a concern if one of the companies went out of 4) Create a viral ebook loaded with affiliate links. A viral ebook is basically a free ebook that is spread by word of mouth. Viral ebooks are a great way to market affiliate products. Suppose you create a viral ebook about how to start an Internet business. link to an autoresponder company, a web hosting company, and anything else an Internet marketer would need to start a business. If anybody clicks on the links within the book and buys one of the products, you get a commission. Everyone wins. The person reading the book gets set up with great services, the companies you promote get more business, and you make loads of affiliate commissions. Viral ebooks can also help to generate a lot of fresh traffic to your website.