A good affiliate program already has all the tools in place for you to succeed; you just need to be the proverbial “Middle Man”. If you can become successful marketing as an affiliate, you will be able to successfully market almost anything on the Internet. However, all affiliate programs are not created equal. Pick programs that give you all the tools you need to succeed. These tools include emails that you can load into an auto-responder, banners, text ads, articles, product reviews, interviews, rebrandable e-books, and email signatures. These tools will help you to make sales, and they have probably already been proven to make sales. Once you have found a program that you feel appeals to you, you will need to think about who your targeting with this affiliate offer. Who your target market is, and where are they? What are they looking for? How can you fill their need?
Getting Traffic
No one is going to just beat your door down to get at the product your marketing. This is where many people lose their way. You must seek out your target market and get your sales tools in front of them. This can be difficult if you do not think it through properly. You must make a commitment and see it through. You must actually get involved in your product “niche” and learn about it so that you can create some sort of content related to your product for prospects to seek out. They might search for something from a search engine, or from MySpace, blogs, or article sites.
You will need a small site where you can send them to find more information on their subject. The two most popular activities on the Internet are email and searches. I’ll repeat that again, because it is that important. The two most popular activities on the Internet are email and searches. You must give people what they want. By creating a website of your own that has information useful to those people in your “niche”, you now have to experiment a little bit on how to get them in front of the affiliate offer. A text link? A downloadable free report with the link to the affiliate offer in the report? (This way you can get their email address as well and begin to build rapport via auto-responder) A useful tool they can use?
There are lots of ways to get the affiliate offer in front of them from your site. You even got a chance to get an email address for follow-up marketing.
Always test everything. Use a free service like the ones I recommend on my site. Don’t be afraid to make subtle changes to your site or any ad copy. Test headlines, link positions, email campaigns, and any and all advertising. As long as you track your results, you will learn what works best. Don’t track and you will be spinning your wheels, not really knowing how well your efforts are paying off. Track everything. This is where you will get your best information on what is works best. A small change in a headline, or link text can have a huge impact on whether it is clicked on or not. Split test all advertising by creating two ads (or possibly email subject lines), track your results and discard the worst performer of the two. Repeat this process until you have a winning campaign.
Becoming a student of your “niche” market is fairly easy. Search for some information in your target market. Who are the major players in your “niche”? Visit their sites and get on their lists. Study the sales process from them or anyone you buy from on the Internet. How did they hook you? With an informative article? How about an ebook? What enticed you to join their list? When you joined their list, did they send you to a page that had an irresistible One Time Offer (OTO)? Did they offer you extra goodies for free if you purchased a particular product? Study the process of the people you deal with. Create a file for your web browser bookmarks so when you come across a site that gives you the urge to purchase right away you can bookmark it so that you may come back and study the aspects of the web site that got you to want to take action and purchase. Likewise, make files in your email program and save the series of emails you get when you join someone’s email list, so you can see how their process works. You may have your own great product some day, and having access to this information will help you to easily refine and hone your sales process so that your sales page converts well. You may even want to multiply or “leverage” your efforts and start your own affiliate program. So pay attention to the process and tools used by some of the best affiliate programs and marketers, and you will expedite your learning process simply by studying them.