Affiliate Marketing - Three Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive

As an affiliate marketer, no doubt you should be continually on the lookout for successful markets that will give the highest ROI (return on investment).  Don't expect some magic formula or worse yet some get-rich-quick scheme to drop into your lap.  It's more complicated than that but success will reward perseverance.  

There are strategies that have worked before with internet marketing and that continue to prove successful in today’s world of affiliate marketing.  Using the three tactics discussed below, you can be a survivor in the world of online affiliate marketing.

Three tactics for success

ONE - Provide Useful Content 

Utilize unique and separate web pages for each different product you are promoting. Don’t combine all the products into a single website just to save a little money on web hosting.

Incorporate product reviews on the webpage so prospective customers can easily learn what the product can do for them. 

Testimonials from customers who have purchased the product are an excellent selling tool.  Be sure you have permission to use any testimonials.  Please don’t offer customers a “special” deal or discount for providing their opinion.  Testimonials should be freely given.

Try writing articles about the product, highlighting the key features of the product and informing prospective buyer of potential benefits.  The webpages should be visually appealing and there should be “Call-to-Action” buttons strategically placed.  Don’t just put “BUY NOW” buttons.  Instead, try a Call-to-Action that encourages potential customers to contact you for more information, or to download a free report with additional product information.  These Call-to-actions will serve as warm-ups for later CTA’s focused on purchasing.

TWO -  Offer free reports to your readers.

At the top of your web page, position an attractive image showing the cover of a free report.  Make this image a clickable opt-in link.  When someone is interested in the free report, they will click the image and be redirected to an opt-in page.  Then they enter their email address in return for access to the report.   The opt-in form must be linked to your autoresponder.  The new email address is immediately added to your list and the autoresponder sends a link to the free report.   It’s important to have this second step before giving away the report to ensure that the email is valid.  If you gave the report away as soon as someone entered an email address, there would be a lot of fake emails on your list.

Following the first email that provides the link to the free report, there should be additional follow-up emails in your autoresponder.  You will need to populate your autoresponder with a collection of emails that are sent out over a period of weeks.

The follow-up emails should contain useful content, not just sales material.  Consider sending excerpts from your blog, or links to useful tools they might use in building their own internet business.  You can certainly include links to affiliate offers that you are promoting, but remember content is king.

THREE. Find Traffic that is targeted to your product.

If someone visits your website and they have absolutely no interest in whatever you are offering, they will leave your site and never return.  If someone receives an email from you promoting a product or service they have absolutely no interest in, they will unsubscribe from your list wondering why they were on your list in the first place.

When you are searching for traffic you must search for traffic that is targeted to your offer.

Try writing articles for e-zines that are associated with the niche you are working in.  That way, subscribers to the e-zine will automatically have an interest in what you may be promoting.  Any traffic you gain from this effort will be targeted.

Plan to write a minimum of 2 or 3 articles per week, with an average of 500 words per article.  By being consistent you will eventually generate as many as 100 targeted readers per day.

If you find 1000 targeted members for your list, keep in mind that on average 5% will open your emails or read your blogs.  That’s 50 people engaging with your content who already are interested in what you are offering because they were part of targeted traffic.  Of those 50 people, perhaps 10% or 5 people will become customers of what you are offering.  That’s a good return.

Summary

The tactics for successful affiliate marketing described above are not difficult. It takes time and planning, and consistency.   

Use these tips for several different affiliate marketing programs. You can earn a good source of income and you’ll be surviving in this business which is something that not all marketers can say.