Sunday, June 14, 2009

Affiliate Sites - Getting Started

By Stephen Grisham Sr.

Not all affiliate programs are successful, despite what may be said. You must stand out from all of the competition in order to take advantage of what opportunity exists. Money won't come easily. You will have to work for every penny.

Find a Niche

Target your traffic. A broad market, for example, sporting goods does not work. There is far too much competition with this category, as it is too large. Maybe you can focus your pitch on fresh-water bass fishing lures, instead.

Generate more traffic

There are many techniques for bringing more traffic to your website. It's wise to select three or less, strategies for your main plan.

"Free traffic" You can still succeed with natural search rankings through good design and hard work. To accomplish this, unique content that has quality and is updated often is required. Try to get as many links from other websites as you can. When using an affiliate program, however, you won't have much of a chance of submitting to directories because most directories do not allow affiliate sites.

A different option is to just pay for your traffic. Known as PPC (Pay Per Click), this system consists of paying a search engine for each visitor they send to you. This may actually be cheaper than hiring someone to keep your search rankings high.

Build Your Own Email List

The best way to do this is to offer a free bonus or service to visitors of your site. Be sure to get their email address through this process.

Be smart and always make an opt-in/opt-out available for your email list. You don't want to wear the label of a spammer. If a person asks to be taken off your list, remove them immediately.

Send follow up emails over a period of days. DON'T email everyone that you have on your list every day. You will appear annoying when you are too aggressive. Allow your customers room to breathe. Set your limit to emailing weekly or monthly newsletters.

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