The Top Three Main Tactics Affiliate Marketers Must Do

Most all Affiliate Marketers are constantly looking for successful markets that give them the biggest and fattest paycheck, and the best ways to achieve that goal. Some think there is a magic formula that they can find if they look in just the right place. In truth, there is indeed a formula, but it’s not magic. It really just comes down to making good marketing decisions and following proven practices and tactics that have worked for others over the years. Methods that through hard work and dedication have shown to be the most effective in producing excellent results. Indeed, why re-invent the wheel when all of the “heavy lifting” has already been done for you?

Here are the top three affiliate marketing tips that have been proven and that you will be able to use to very effectively increase your sales and thrive in affiliate marketing online.

What are the three main tactics?

Tactic 1. You have to use a unique web page to promote each individual product you are marketing. You do not want to lump all of them together on one page just to save some web hosting costs. It really is better to have one page focusing on each and every product by themselves. This is a critical mistake many marketers make. If you have more than two items for sale on one page, the potential buyer can get overwhelmed and confused pretty quickly. By putting just one item per page, they have no choice but to focus on that item. This makes it much easier for them to make a decision. You can get away with having two items on one page if they are fairly similar in nature or content, but having just one works the best.

Along with the product description, you want to always include at least one product review on the website so your visitors will have a full understanding of what the product can do for them. It is also a great idea to include testimonials from actual customers who have already tried the product/service. You want to make sure that these customers are willing to let you use their names and photos on the page of each product you are marketing, so get permission from them first.

Be sure to make the pages attractive and compelling and include “calls to action” on the information/product. Every headline should attract the readers to read more of the page, or even to contact you for more information. Highlight the products “special points”. Give your readers as much information as possible to help them learn what the product is about, but leave some out so that they will want to find out more.

Tactic 2. A great way to help attract buyers is to offer free reports along with the product, or even for just their name and email address, and use great autoresponder messages. Whenever possible, try to position the “free report” option at the very top of the webpage at the left side, so that they cannot be missed. Studies show that people scan web pages from the top down and from left to right, so the upper left is usually the first thing they see. Always create a warm and welcoming autoresponder message that will be immediately emailed to whoever gives you their personal information through your opt-in box. According to very valid research, a sale is closed usually around the seventh contact with a new customer/prospect. The more personal you make each contact, the more likely the customer will purchase from you, even if the product is available from someone else. My personal experience is that I buy faster from people who reply to my emails and who genuinely want to help me. As for autoresponders, you can pay a monthly fee to one of the big name companies, or you can do what I did and get your own desktop autoresponder that you control every aspect of. I have a lot more peace of mind knowing that I have complete control over when and how my emails go out.

With the web page alone, there are only two things that can possibly happen: you will get a sale or the prospect will leave the page and possibly never return again. By giving them useful information in their inboxes at certain intervals, you are reminding them of the product they thought they might want later and it will keep you, your site and the product(s) fresh in their minds. You want to be sure that the content is directed toward the actual and specific reasons to buy the product. One thing you don’t want to do is make it sound like a sales pitch.

Instead, focus on the important points. For instance, show them how your product can make their life and working on-line easier and more enjoyable. Make sure to use compelling subject lines in each email. Try to avoid using the word “free” as much as possible, because there are plenty of spam filters out there that will dump that kind of content into the junk folder before anyone even reads them. Plus, using the typical disguises for these words, like “F*R_E_E” to avoid the spam filters just look terrible. I for one delete those immediately, as I know they are trying to “sell” me something. You want to use your autoresponder emails to convince those who have signed up for your newsletter/free reports that they will be missing out on something big if they don’t take advantage of your products and services, but do it without looking like your “selling” something to them. The more a person thinks it’s their decision to buy; the more likely they will buy right away.

Tactic 3. Now let’s talk about what is probably the most important item. Traffic. More to the point, traffic that brings in customers. And not just any customers; you want to get the kind of targeted traffic to your product that will be more than likely to buy what you are selling. Look at it like this, if the person who visits your website has zero interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be the first ones to hit the back button and move on, never to come back. How do you get this good, targeted traffic? Writing articles for e-zines, article sites and e-reports is a great method. This way you can find publications and article sites that are much more focused toward your target customers and what you have available might just grab their interest.

If you can write a minimum of 2 articles every week, with a minimum of 300-600 words in length, you will get a lot more attention and more focused traffic. By maintaining articles and writing continuously every week, these articles can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day. One thing to remember is that generally only 1 out of 100 people who visit your site are likely to buy your product or services. Once you can generate as many as 1,000 targeted traffic hits to your website a day, you can comfortably guesstimate that you will make 10 sales from that traffic, based on average statistics.

Another method that I have found to work very nicely is to use “traffic exchanges”. There are many free and paid exchanges around and the principle with all of them is basically the same. You sign up, look at other members’ web pages/ads and they in turn look at your ads and web sites. I belong to a few of these and my favorite is TrafficSwarm. It’s got a very simple interface; you can put up a bunch of short ads with links to your products and web sites within minutes of joining, your ads are targeted to the traffic you want and it’s free. Since signing up with TrafficSwarm, my “unique visitors” stats have jumped up 250%, my page views have had a similar increase and sales are steadily improving each day. You can’t ask for more than that.

The strategies given above are not really very difficult to do at all, if you think about it. They do require a little bit of your time, effort and an action plan on your part to insure success. Use these tips for all of your affiliate marketing products, and you will end up with a good source of steady income and make your way easily in this business.

To your continued prosperity!

Ross the Pit Boss

What To Put On Content Sites

I am constantly asked the following question:

“What should I put on my content sites?”

Of course they are asking about my traffic generation strategy where I recommend creating content sites and pushing the traffic to a product site.

Here are some possibilities to put on your content site:

1. A Resource Directory

Resource directories used to be a great form of content. Yahoo actually got it’s start as a resource directory. They are now the #2 most visited site on the entire Internet. The search engine ranking data (.RankingFactors.com) shows that outbound links are still a positive ranking correlation factor (even though so-called SEO “experts” moan about PR leak and other such nonsense). One problem with resource directories is the level that they have been abused lately with all of the Adsense scraper sites. There are literally hundreds of thousands of useless resource directories out there now that have been created with automation.

2. Articles

Articles are my very favorite form of content for content sites. They are perhaps the purest form of content. If you think about it, a blog post can almost always also be considered an article. In fact, you may see this very blog post appear as a syndicated article soon via Artemis Pro. If you want only your own articles on your content site, a blog is a great content management system. If you want to allow others to submit articles (and this is VERY POWERFUL!), then stay tuned. I will be releasing a product very soon that makes this very easy.

3. Product Reviews

A product review is really just a kind of article; isn’t it? Normally I recommend using content sites for driving traffic to your own sites. Product reviews can be a double-whammy though. You can use them as legitimate examples of pure content on your content site (to get visitors and push them to your product sites) AND you can also include affiliate links in the product review and make some direct income.

4. Surveys

It is difficult to get a survey to match up with the Ranking Factors data, but these are a very nice way to have your users add some content to your site.

5. Forums

Forums are also very difficult to get aligned with the Ranking Factors data. They are also notorious for advertising blind spots. The visitors really focus on the forum and will largely ignore your attempts to distract them to your product site. Still, they are a great way to get a large number of visitors generating content for you. That concept of getting your visitors to generate your content is important.

6. Blogs

I haven’t tried this, but I have seen it done. The idea is much like forums, but you are providing hosting for other people’s blogs in return for your ad being on their blog.

7. Downloads

If your market has anything to do with software, a download area can draw a lot of visitors. There are other markets that are also well-suited to downloads. The most common types other than software are covered in the next three types of content.

8. Pictures

Do you have a travel site you are trying to promote? How about a dating site? Or a photography site? These are obvious types of sites where a picture content site can help drive traffic. What about your topic? Are pictures something that will draw your type of visitors?

9. Videos

Videos are quickly becoming mainstream on the Internet. Although you will need to pay for quite a bit more bandwidth when offering videos, this type of content can match up with almost any topic of site.

10. Audios

Some sites can really benefit from audios. They will take less bandwidth than videos, but only makes sense for some topics of sites.

There are probably hundreds of types of content that I haven’t covered, but that should get you started. Remember that the point of the content sites is to provide traffic that you can distract to your product sites. That means:

1. The content needs to be quality content that actually provides value to the universe. You don’t want people arriving at your product site feeling that they have been tricked by some junk page generator.

2. You don’t need some huge variety of content. A site with 5 interesting articles about the topic of your product is just fine. A site with 500 interesting articles is even better. Don’t somehow convince yourself that 5 articles isn’t “enough”… that somehow you “need” a forum, a blog, and a picture download area. You don’t. Any single form of content in any quantity is just fine.

3. A form of content that allows your visitors to generate more content is most powerful. That way you don’t have to do the work to get the traffic… your visitors do. It also adds interactivity and a feeling of being a part of that site for your visitors which will help retain repeat visitors and increase word-of-mouth traffic. I highly recommend that you focus on some type of content that is provided primarily by your users (although you may have to “seed” it yourself).

OK; I hope that answers the question about what to put on content sites. Go get to work generating some serious traffic to your product pages from your new content sites now.

Hermits Need Not Apply

Are you too shy to strike up conversations with other people? Hmm… What about email, surely sending someone an email isn’t terribly daunting, right? It is? Well, then you’re in the wrong business. Network marketing means just what it says. You are a network marketer. That means you need to network, and if you don’t do that most important thing, you’ll never succeed.

Traffic exchanges are a good place to start honing the art of becoming a good mentor. In most exchanges, when you get a referral into the program, you are notified by the site’s admin. This is great because you can take immediate action to assure that you remain on your recruit’s mind. If you can’t do it immediately, be sure to respond to this alert within 24 hours. Send your referral a private message, if this feature is available at the traffic exchange. If not, send an email, an IM, or even call them on the telephone. I know this isn’t everyone’s choice, but it works even better than mail. Yet, if you insist on sending a written messge of some type, there are dos and don’ts.

In your welcome message, do be sure to thank the person for joining you in the program. Point out places where new members will find help regarding the site, such as to a tutorial or an FAQ section. Tell the person that you will be happy to help, if he or she still has questions, and provide your contact information.

The more ways you give people to reach you, the better. Give them your email address, your IM address, and even your telephone number. If you’re reticent about doing that, maybe your cell phone number would seem better. Just remember, you can always change a number, but most folks who call you are just looking for guidance in their own online careers. They’re in search of a beacon. You can be that beacon for them, if you don’t abuse the privilege.

Sponsors who send an ad for another program in their messages are spamming, pure and simple. Don’t do it. Aside from it being against the terms of service in a majority of exchanges, it’s just rude. Offer help and guidance and that person will probably join your program anyway, just because you’ve taken your time to be helpful.

I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve had, telling me that, “I joined Program XYZ, and my upline sponsor said she’d call, but never has,” or “I never knew I had an upline sponsor in XYZ.” Well, it’s a shame you weren’t that person’s upline sponsor in that traffic exchange, huh? You probably will be in others, if you just give him or her a little support. It’s a cold, cruel World Wide Web out there, folks. Be kind to others, and you are sure to succeed.