These affiliate marketing tips are for anyone that has a content based website, affiliate marketing can be a good source of passive income.
Here are some affiliate marketing tips to get you started in the right direction.
It is a good idea to do some research before you get involved into this type of online marketing there will be a few things you need to consider first, will you be able to engage your website readers.
Do you have the resources and the understanding for knowing what your website visitor wants.
It’s very important to know why they are coming to your website and to make sure that they are always provided with what they are looking for.
Make sure that the affiliate products being promoted on the site are what your visitors want or are at least are searching for online. To understand this more you might want to also see our post on the Golden Rules To Affiliate Marketing.
To give you a clearer understanding about this we will use this example, if you have created a website themed around sports, then don’t put up affiliate banners or links for just any popular affiliate product such as dieting just because it might have a high payout or seems to be popular online currently.
You always have to be mindful to stay focused on your niche with your content and the products that you select to promote as an affiliate.
If you want to promote very high paying programs then this should have been decided before you created the site so that you can theme the content towards selling that product.
Everyone who is visiting your affiliate site to read any posts or news stories on your site or get stats for their favorite teams aren’t thinking about anything else when they’re on your site. The more relevant the affiliate ads are to your readers, the more likely it is that they will actually click on them and with around five percent of those buy something which is what will give you your affiliate commission.
Be An Authority In Your Niche
It’s also very important with affiliate marketing to be seen as an authority. Most online users are very savvy when it comes to knowing what an affiliate link looks like when they see one in your site content.
Checkout our post on Building Trust.
If you promote an affiliate product that you really don’t believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back. One needs to build a relationship with readers based on genuine content as this will encourage repeat visits.
Always be thinking long-term no matter how tempting it may be to cash in quickly by accepting a lot of ads that may or may not have an relevance to the site’s content.
Think of affiliate ads or banner ads as additional promotional resources that complement your websites content. These ads should give value to your content by making it helpful, useful, and informative to your users. For example, don’t put up a list of your favorite computer games, hoping people will click on the affiliate link and purchase them just because you listed them in your website sidebar.
One way of drawing customers to a specific product or service is by simply writing a detailed review, and use affiliate ads to point them in the right direction or the product vendor using your affiliate link if they decide to act on the information that you have provided them.
Just placing affiliate links into irrelevant content to products or services with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by virtually all of your site visitors and failed attempt at affiliate marketing.
Market Research Is Essential
Make sure you spend some time doing market research so that you can understand all the different options available for products or services available through the affiliate networks. Put some thought into which products or services your readers may need or like and will potentially want to buy.
Update 2013: With so many updates pouring out of Google right now you need to have a full understanding of what your goals are and what your competitors are doing to stay in the game.
Also, change the ads around often, try different ones, and use different graphics and text to see which work the best. It may take some time to figure out the best formula.
You Need To Be Continually Checking Your Affiliate Links
If one affiliate program that you have chosen doesn’t seem to be making you any money, then simply move to another one in your niche. Affiliate programs are not all the same and one that is popular today may not be tomorrow. There are many different products, services, and payment structures for you to use.
Such as some of these affiliate programs will have a lifetime payout on sales you make while others will limit it to 30-90 days. Some programs allow much more flexibility in the types of ad units available, as well as colors and design so they can be tailored to a particular sites layout.
Being Patient Will Lead To Your Online Success
Lastly, it’s important to remember to BE PATIENT. Your Affiliate marketing revenue if researched correctly will grow and build up overtime time. Depending on which market you have chosen such as internet marketing or computer security some of these programs offer monthly commissions for the life of the customer.
If you refer a customer, it may be possible to continue making money from that one customer even if he or she never returns to your affiliate site again.
Never remove your old affiliate links, as long as you have your affiliate links still active in your older posts, they can still make you money. And always remember this, Affiliate marketing is not a get rich scheme it takes hard work and planning to stay ahead of the game.
Hopefully these affiliate marketing tips have given you some understanding of the steps you need to take to start making an income online as an affiliate marketer.
I think success in affiliate marketing comes in building a level of trust with your readers so that the reviews you write and the recommendations you make are actually accepted. A positive write up on a product doesn’t mean much if your visitors don’t feel they can trust your opinion so more realistic reviews that actually include the negatives and not just a list of benefits can actually perform better.
Hi Steve that is spot on advice
If you do not have the trust and confidence of your online visitors it will be very hard for you to make a sale as an affiliate marketer. That is one of the biggest reasons why you will see literally thousands of one or two page websites scattered across the internet in every niche you can imagine that have been left by their owners because they have failed due to the mentality of the get rich quick marketers.
Take the time to build a site that has good content and two things can potentially happen, which are getting lots of one way backlinks and that will lead to better serp listing followed by affiliate sales.
Hey there AffiliateX! I was just browsing through your FAQ and I was hoping I would find your personal take on the new FTC rules. I notice you’re doing all the right things: Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, etc. However, for the newbie affiliate marketer, what do you recommend, now that the “game changing” FTC rules have been updated. Perhaps you can title your next post, “How I have changed my affiliate marketing business according the new FTC laws.” Also, be sure to address how this affects foreign affiliates and US affiliates alike. I’d like to get your take on it. Thanks!
.-= Kelly@Learn To Speak French Fluently´s last blog .. =-.
Hi Kelly
And welcome to our site… the bottom line is this “Be Honest And Open” this is the key to the FTC rules do not use deceptive practices to make sales such as false claims and make sure you have it listed on your site, that your links will pay you a commission if clicked and a purchase is made.
Also as a new affiliate you really need to stay away from testimonials, firstly because most people don’t believe them and it will also draw unwanted attention. However if the testimonial can be verified then that should not be a problem, but again you also need to state that they are not typical results.
You have to remember that just because you find a product useful to your business others will not. As it all comes down to determination to succeed and many people will purchase a product or service and then leave it on the shelf collecting dust.
I also only write about products that I either have or are using right now so that an honest review of the product or service can be written. To find out more about the FTC rulings you might like this post FTC Publishes New Revisions.