Traffic Tips to Build Your List

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Traffic tips to build your business, without traffic and customers purchasing your goods you don't have a business only a hobby! Everyone will tell you the money is in the list. When you have your own list of happy customers you know a broadcast email or an email sequence can bring you a stream of orders.

If you start affiliate marketing with a mentor and just send prospects to the mentor's sales pages that is the easiest way to make an income when you begin, but it won't be long before you realise you are just building the Mentor's list and business. Yes you are getting paid for your efforts, but by taking their names and emails first via a redirect system you are both gaining and you get two chances of making a sale. You can also sell other products to your own list.

Therefore as you progress in your training and learning the techniques necessary you will also probably want to grow a list of you own; but either way the more traffic techniques you learn the more opportunities you have of making a good income.

Solo ads are one of the simplest forms of paid advertising. Solo ads can build your list fast. You purchase visitors to an opt-in sales page by offering a free gift via an email the supplier sends out for you to his list. Only use monitored Solo ad websites for suppliers which can be found on forums, Facebook groups or recommended by your mentor.

Facebook advertising is another fast method. Facebook has some tutorials to help you get started but it does take time to become proficient at choosing the most relevant selection of people to include.

Content marketing, there are many ways to grow your list organically, for example article directories, sometimes your information is picked up by others and passed on, make sure you have a link back to a sales or contact page. Guest blogging sites and free advertisements can also help. Guest blogging sites are often looking for good articles.

Email Marketing; as soon as you begin to grow your list you can benefit from email marketing, both sequence emails, newsletters and broadcast emails are used with an auto-responder like Get Response. This enables you to create a relationship with your prospects. It often takes a while to gain the confidence of your prospects before they trust you and purchase you offerings. Don't just send them sales emails make sure you send them good content emails or they will stop opening them.

YouTube Videos; videos are very popular and can easily be informative. They can be made with slides or speaking into the microphone. If you are visually in front of your audience it helps gain confidence because you appear as a real person they can relate to. Videos can be made with your phone, directly from your laptop or using a variety of free and expensive equipment. If you take a look at YouTube you will find videos on every subject you can think of. they can be a great source of traffic.Videos, like pictures, are popular with both Google and Facebook and because Google owns YouTube it can help your page rankings to use video on your website or linked to it..

As traffic is such a huge subject, her are some books that might interest you:

"Facebook for business" by Bud E Smith

"Email Persuasion" by Email Brodie

"500 Social Media Tips" by Andrew Macarthy

"Profitable social Media Marketing" by Tim Kitchen and Tachmeem Mirza

"SEO Step by Step" by Caimin Jones

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50 Ways to Boost Your Blog Traffic

Hello dear friends!

Today I would love to share with you my favorite tips and tricks that I use day by day to grow my blog traffic, without spending a penny.

These tips are not specific for a certain niche, they can be used by anyone.

#1. List your website in blog directories, here is a list;

#2. Share your new posts on Tumblr - use tags;

#3. Swap sidebar blog buttons;

#4. Always reply to all your comments;

#5. Use Digg;

#6. Guest post;

#7. Write often;

#8. Write long posts;

#9. Run a blog giveaway;

#10. Write an e-book;

#11. Submit your blog to Kindlepublishing;

#12. Include your blog URL in your email signature;

#13. Use StumbleUpon;

#14. User Reddit;

#15. Use good quality, eye-catching photos;

#16. Make sure you have social sharing buttons on all posts;

#17. Create an app for iPhone or Android;

#18. Submit your articles to EzineArticles, GoArticles, ArticlesBase, SelfGrowth, HubPages, Street Articles, Technorati, Fuel my Blog, Blog Top Sites;

#19. Join collaborative Pinterest, why not join my collaborative board here?;

#20. Use Twitter - 300 million active users;

#21. Remember the importance of SEO;

#22. Reference your posts - just make sure you do it in a non-manipulative way;

#23. Make sure you have a Facebook page where you can share your posts;

#24. Build an email list;

#25. Use a scheduling software like Buffer;

#26. Pin your blog post images regularly;

#27. Reach out to other bloggers- build relationships;

#28. Share your old posts through social media;

#29. Pay for advertising on Facebook;

#30. Write awesome content;

#31. Join social groups;

#32. Get in touch with others - comment on other people's blogs;

#33. Always use photos in your posts, sometimes a great photo makes you read an article;

#34. Make a radio Ad - creative idea and it's a great way to promote your website especially if you are selling something;

#35. Share other blog posts, not just yours! - if you post an interesting article a potential new reader will keep reading articles you are posting;

#36. Make sure you submit your blog posts to all search engines, find the list here;

#37. Use eye-catching post titles;

#38. Join Viralcontentbuzz - I just joined recently and I already love it! Viral Content buzz is a web-based platform that utilizes a crowd-sourcing model to facilitate the generation of REAL "social buzz" on quality content;

#39. Use Twitter between 1 and 3 pm on weekdays!;

#40. Host images on Flickr - link them back to your blog;

#41. List your top articles - in your sidebar or use a word tag cloud, etc.;

#42. Try to link back to older posts;

#43. Translate your content- this might multiply your blog traffic! I am planning to do this shortly;

#44. Link your blog in your forum signature;

#45. Join LinkedIn groups and participate;

#46. Make sure your images are pinnable;

#47. Include Alt tags for your images!;

#48. Use Keywords!;

#49. Make sure your site is accessible on mobiles and tablets;

#50. Have fun and don't give up!

Hope you enjoyed reading my tips and tricks to boost your blog traffic and I also hope you found something useful through it!

Your turn! How else can you grow your blog traffic?

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Benefits of Content Marketing

A content marketing plan offers a very different perspective because you "own" the attention your company or brand receives. You are taking strategic steps to build brand awareness and cultivate your audience with the intent that they will read your blog, share your content on social media and ultimately buy your products or services.

Google is the largest search engine in the world. Their job is to connect people with the people, places and things that they are looking for. In order for you to take advantage of the billions of people looking for products or services similar to yours, you must have fresh, updated content posted on your website that match the search terms that people are using.

Content marketing gives you the benefit of building and fine tuning an audience that is custom-made just for your company or brand. And the more relevant content on your site the larger that audience will grow.

Basically, the definition of content marketing is someone who writes and publish articles and or posts online and then use various methods to spread knowledge of that content across as many social media platforms as he/she deems necessary in order to increase brand awareness.

Your audience is searching the web and doing their own research on the things they want. They are downloading information, comparing prices, asking for referrals from friends and family and talking about their desires on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and a host of other social sites.

Make no mistakes about it, your brand will absolutely benefit from social media marketing. It's the same as content marketing except you will re-post your articles on social media networks in addition to publishing it on your blog or website.

If you have a product or service that match what people are looking for, why not create content for your website that matches their search and allow Google to send them to your website instead of elsewhere? This is the essence of what digital marketing is all about. Digital marketing is simply finding creative ways to connect a willing audience to your product or service.

If your content is the content that continuously shows up in search results, when a customer is ready to make a purchase, he will more than likely be drawn to your site and consider making a purchase from you instead of someone else.

The reason for that is because they have seen your brand's name mentioned in search terms over and over again and therefore a certain level of "trust" has developed in their mind which leads them to feel as though you are a good and safe choice when it's time to make a purchase.

There are a lot of aspects to having a content marketing plan that I have not gone into detail about. However, if there is one takeaway I would like for you to have it is this, content is king and if you want to take advantage of the billions of people using search engines to find products or services like yours, you are going to have to create engaging content that offers value and that readers will enjoy enough to share on social media which will drive a massive amount of free traffic back to your site.

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8 Ways to Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Strategies

There have been significant changes to the affiliate marketing landscape over the past year. Staying on top of your game means keeping up to date on the techniques that are working right now. As a serious affiliate marketer you want to get ahead of the pack, rather than being left behind in the dust. Keep reading to find out the 8 essential things you need to be doing in your business for successful campaigns.

1. Stay focused on your niche.

It's much better to stay in one niche and try a few different products than to bounce around from one niche to another and never really get anything accomplished. Once you have mastered your first niche, go ahead and experiment with another one.

2. Content is still King.

Create great content your competitors can't hold a candle to. It's essential in order to stand out especially in a competitive niche. Be the one your readers can't forget. Large brands spend a great deal of time getting their content approved. You can be much faster than them, and turn out great content to make money with while they are still in meetings deciding about their content.

3. Build a strong affiliate income foundation by choosing products and programs offering recurring revenue.

When someone buys a product through your link, you receive a one-time affiliate payout. However, when the same customer signs up for a monthly newsletter, membership or other learning materials delivered on a monthly basis, you receive a recurring revenue from those monthly payments. This gives you money in the future as well as the immediate payment.

4. Make sure all your content, sites and landing pages are mobile friendly.

Did you know that 46% of affiliate clicks were done via mobile? This can have a great effect on your bottom line if your content isn't mobile-friendly. You could end up losing a great deal of potential income if mobile customers are clicking off your sites because they aren't coming up properly on their mobile screen.

5. Diversify your traffic sources.

When Google released the panda update in February 2011, many affiliates discovered their business would probably fizzle out in a few weeks or months. Then Penguin hit in April of 2012. Top affiliate marketers encourage us to own our audience rather than rent it. Make sure your business model is supported by several different traffic sources. If you rely on only one and it dries up, you will have a problem. Owning your own sites is another advantage in the ups and downs of the Google Zoo updates.

6. Go with the flow of seasonal and break-out trends.

You can usually predict a seasonal trend, and it will be recurring in the sense that it will come around again next season. An example of this would by Halloween costumes. A break-out trend can make you a lot of money in the short term, if your timing is right, and may not ever come back around again. An example of this could be affiliate products based around a fad diet or a popular cartoon character. They peak in popularity and then taper out as interest dies down. Your affiliate marketing efforts should be a good blend of these two types of trends as well as evergreen topics such as health and wellness.

7. Experiment with different ways of presenting your content.

There are many different social media accounts you can use to increase exposure for your affiliate products. Using written content, video, audio and even webinars for higher ticket items is also effective.

8. Keyword targeting is the old, topic targeting is the new.

It's no secret Google has been penalizing those affiliates trying to focus on narrow keywords. It's much more beneficial to take a topic and generate many LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) describing the product and use those on your page. These are synonyms Google can collate together to identify what your page is all about.

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45 Tips to Make MORE Money with Affiliate Marketing

’m often asked the question: “How do I make more money with affiliate marketing?”

This is hard one to answer.  That’s because there are a number of ways to increase affiliate income.

Some you can do in a few minutes.  Others require an extra level of time and dedication.

Today we’ll cover forty-five of these ideas…

Blogging to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#1 – Write a review for the marquee products you promote.  Target the keyword: {Product Name} + review in your content.  Get backlinks to this article and increase its search engine ranking.  This is a great way to target people who are in a buying mindset.

#2 – Enhance the review (see #1) by including examples, screenshots, videos and anything that demonstrates proof of what the product claims.  It’s important to be specific.  People want to know how it’s helped YOU.

#3 – Record an audio (or video) Skype interview with the owner an affiliate product.  Include 90% quality content with a light pitch at the end.  Do this for everything you promote.  Then offer these interviews as exclusive content to blog readers.

#4 – Target a massive problem/question in your niche.  Create a webinar presentation that mostly solves this problem.  Weave a subtle recommendation of a quality product within the content.  Promote this piece of content to all current and future readers.

#5 – Create a resource page for blog readers.  Think of this as a “101 class” where you include links to content covering a specific topic.  Put it in a logical order.  Then link to any product that’s relevant to these articles.

#6 – Create a tools page.  These are the things you use on regular basis.  Most will be links to free resources.  But also include affiliate recommendations to products that help readers.

#7 – Record a video presentation where you demonstrate a product.  (This works great for membership sites and software.)  Show all the benefits and provide a behind-the-scenes look at what’s available to customers.  Post on your blog and YouTube.  Use a site like Tube Mogul to distribute this content to additional video sharing sites.

#8 – Think “content marketing.”  People don’t buy blindly through affiliate links.  Buy they will if you’ve built authority and regularly provide excellent advice.  So focus on sending people to content where you subtly talk about a product.

#9 – Use a tool like Rank Tracker to identify blog posts that generate web traffic from niche-specific keywords.  Edit these articles; recommending a related affiliate product.  Increase their search engine rankings to get more traffic and make more money.  (A big thanks to Alex for this idea!)

In addition, you can use one of the popular SEO Services to increase the rankings of your existing web pages.

#10 – Rotate the advertisements on your blog with the Ad Rotator plugin.  Most affiliate products have internal tracking that measures both earnings and clicks.  Eliminate any ad that’s not making money.  This will free up space to display ads that are profitable.

#11 – Streamline the key areas of your blog.  Your focus is to increase the amount of content people read and make money.  Remove the things that don’t add to this end result.  Ie: Do you really need a clock or a calendar widget?

#12 – Design a ‘ninja advertisement.’  This is a text-based image that matches the same font as your blog. (See the bottom of this post for an example.) Automatically post this at the end of each article using the DD Add Sig plugin.

Obviously… you should test this in comparison to traditional types of advertising.

#13 – Set goals in the Google Analytics program.  Focus on increasing clicks to affiliate products.  Regularly run a test on your blog and see if it produces more clicks.

Promotional Ideas to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#14 – Track every affiliate click down to the exact traffic source.  This identifies the specific actions that produce income.  This information is a great way to do an 80/20 analysis of your affiliate business.  Simply do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

#15 – Register a URL forwarding address for your top affiliate programs.  Make it easy for people to remember.  Example:  I use http://www.GetMarketMe.com for my promos of the Market Me Suite program.   This is a great idea if you create a lot of audio and video content.

#16 – Create a bonus that complements an affiliate product.  Only offer to people who buy through your link.  Even better…Point out a product defect and then position your bonus as a solution.

#17 – Create a product that sells for under $10.  Write a killer autoresponder sequence that promotes a variety of affiliate offers.  Simply put, customers are 10x more likely to buy an affiliate recommendation than your standard email subscriber.

#18 – Record a Podcast series in your niche.  Provide amazing content that builds a loyal audience.  Only then should you recommend an affiliate marketing offer.  (Check out Podcast Answer Man for more on this.)

#19 – Record a video series in your niche.  This is similar to tip #18 where you create excellent content before giving an affiliate recommendation.  (Check out this free PDF on how to dominate video marketing.)

#20 – Tighten your paid advertising.  Adwords, Facebook Ads, and Yahoo are great places to find targeted traffic.  The important thing is to identify the keywords/demographics that generate income.  Focus on those and ditch the stuff that’s not making money.  (This might seem obvious.  But many marketers let their unprofitable campaigns go unchecked.)    

#21 – Presell the affiliate offer.  It doesn’t matter what medium you use.  Telling people why you like a product is a great way to increase interest in it.  Folks should come to a sales page – Wallet in hand and ready to buy.

#22 – Link to a product’s presell content.  Nowadays most affiliate programs offer tools that presell their product.  (Like free PDFs, webinars, infographics, and audios.)  Instead of directly linking to an offer; you can send traffic to one of these presell items.  This is a great way to bridge your presell content with a sales page.

#23 – Use scarcity effectively.  Many product owners love to use scarcity in their marketing.  This could be a limited availability or a sale for a few days.  Find when a program is using scarcity and make a strong push to your audience.

#24 – Use content sites like EzineArticles.com and Squidoo to promote an affiliate link.  Yes, this trick still works.  The important thing is to create quality content that makes people take click your links.  Also, be sure to use a forwarding URL (see #15.)

#25 – Tweet about an affiliate offer.  I do think people send too many self-serving Tweets.  However the occasional affiliate link works when you’re always giving great content.  Just make sure to build trust and only link to something that’s useful to followers.

#26 – Bypass the opt-in page of product owners.  Sometimes you don’t want to send traffic to a squeeze page.  This is especially true when it gets a low opt-in rate.  This free tool helps you bypass this page and send folks directly to the sales letter.

#27 – Diversify your affiliate income.  I’m a firm believer of focusing on a single niche.  On the other hand, it’s important to create multiple streams of revenue.  One thing you can do is set up a web of Amazon niche sites.

#28 – Write a Viral eBook.  Write a free report (or manifesto) that’s full of helpful information.  The primary objective is offer value to the reader.  But include an affiliate link to any product you think helps people.

I did this for my report THE Affiliate Research Formula last month.

Almost as an afterthought I included an affiliate link to the Market Samurai program.  The result?  I generated more sales in last 30 days than I had in all the months before.

Email Marketing to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#29 – Offer a lead magnet and build an email list.  This is what all successful Internet entrepreneurs do to generate a full-time income.  Done correctly, you can generate cash-on-demand every time you send an email message.

#30 – Include an affiliate advertisement on your thank you page.  (Or test an existing offer with a new product.)

#31 – Include affiliate links in your lead magnet.  This is similar to idea #28.  The only difference is to make a strong recommendation of a single product.  That way, you’re giving great content without overwhelming a new reader.

#32 – Split test your lead magnet offer.  Put simply: More subscribers = More money.   Use a site like Google Optimizer to increase your opt-in percentage.  (Also check out my ab split test post that lists 23 ways to increase your subscriber numbers.)

#33 – Build an autoresponder sequence that rocks!   Write a series of emails that educate while promoting top affiliate products.  The key here is to create valuable email content that complements your online brand.

#34 – Send a broadcast message.  Don’t let old subscribers stagnate.  You can maintain their interest by sending regular content…with the occasional affiliate offer.

#35 – Maintain a publishing schedule of your emails.  Do this for both your autoresponders and broadcast messages.  Include metrics like:

• Open rates
• Clicks on affiliate links
• Earnings per email

This information is important because it shows what produces income.  Use it to front load your sequence with the most profitable emails.  Ultimately this is a great way to increase profits with the same number of subscribers.

#36 – Resend a message to your “un-opens.”  With tracking you’ll know what broadcast messages make money.  With Aweber you can deliver the same message to anyone who didn’t open the original email.

#37 – Continue to send profitable emails.  This technique works great with broadcast messages.

The harsh reality of email marketing is many people will unsubscribe after a few months.  Or they’ll lose interest.  The good news is you can send proven emails to new subscribers.  Usually I like to recycle my best content every 6 to 8 months.

Product Research (and Selection) to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#38 – Examine the payout of your existing affiliate product selection.  It’s okay to promote stuff that generates a single commission.  But it’s even better to market offers with recurring revenue and quality upsell offers.

#39 – Find new products to promote.  New products hit the market all the time.  It’s up to YOU to try them and tell subscribers about the best ones.  (Personally, I like to send at least one email each month about a new product.)

#40 – Use a site like CB Engine to track new Clickbank products.  There are a lot of hidden goldmines in Clickbank.  Be one of the first to promote them and you’ll make more money as an affiliate marketer.

#41 – Locate and understand common problems in your market.  (Use a site like Big Boards to do this.)  Identify the questions and obstacles that plague most people.  Take these ideas and create content around them.  Be sure to recommend an affiliate product that provides a solution.

#42 – Study other marketers in your niche.  Join their email lists and subscribe to their blogs.  See how they structure an affiliate recommendation.  Borrow the ideas that currently work for them.  (Just don’t plagiarize their content.)

#43 – Ask for more money.  This works great for offers with a self-hosted affiliate program – Especially if you’re generating a lot of sales.  Most product owners are willing to increase affiliate commissions if you ask.  The trick is to be someone who produces a reliable level of income.

2 “Can’t Miss” Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#44 – No matter what…always experiment.   The Internet is constantly evolving.  So it’s important to test different things.  Sure, some things will result in failure.  The good news is you’ll also develop a few techniques that will raise your affiliate income.

#45 – Take your affiliate business to the next level:  Allow me to give my shameless, gratuitous plug:

My Affiliate Marketing without the Bulls**t product provides a step-by-step solution to affiliate success.

In this post I’ve listed a number of tips and shortcuts.  But they won’t work unless you have a plan.  With my product you’ll get that roadmap that guides you through the challenging process of building a long-term business.

YOUR Ideas on Making Money with Affiliate Marketing?

Okay, I just listed 45 tips to make more money with affiliate marketing.

Now it’s up to you!

Did I miss an idea?  What tricks do you use with affiliate marketing?  Have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) used any tip I just listed?

Please discuss below…

Take Action. Get Results.

http://www.stevescottsite.com/make-money-with-affiliate-marketing

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Three Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets

Affiliate marketing isn’t that tough… if you’ve got attention and trust.

You can gain attention and trust through your relationship with people who agree to receive content from you. And you can gain attention from people via search engines because Google trusts your content.

Ideally, you want both.

Of course, there are ways to make money with affiliate marketing that don’t involve content at all. You can use search marketing to send traffic to pre-sell landing pages, and sometimes even directly to the merchant offer (see Affiliate Project X for those strategies).

Different strokes for different folks… but I like to build online assets. Building a subscriber list is a valuable asset, because you can market to these folks over the long-term with multiple offers if you preserve the relationship. Likewise, a site well-positioned for valuable keywords in search engines is an asset that can bring targeted traffic and revenue for years.

Let’s take a look at three affiliate marketing strategies that build assets and sustainable businesses. The first focuses on list building, the next on link building, and the last on both.

List Building with Paid Traffic

This is a classic online list-building strategy that still works wonders in email-friendly niches (and things are still more email friendly than some of you might think). The goal is to drive traffic to a landing page that persuades the visitor to opt-in to your newsletter, either with effective copy or a sample of the content. Targeted traffic should ideally come from search engine pay-per-click ads, but other advertising methods can work if they’re cost effective.

List building is all about opt-in conversion rates and the value of each subscriber over the life of the relationship. This is where valuable content comes into play… you’re not going to get someone to give up their primary email address unless you promise and deliver valuable content in return. And your lifelong customer value will be lower if you don’t maintain a good relationship with your list.

Here are 3 quick tips that make this affiliate marketing strategy work:

1. You can’t be shy about promoting, or else you won’t make any money. But you also need a balance between solid content and affiliate offers to maintain a positive relationship. Crafting content that offers independent value but also naturally leads to a product recommendation is one smart way to do it (more on this in the next installment of the series).
2. You’ll do better with Google Adwords by having a highquality score for your landing page. The best way to do that is to host the page on a domain with plenty of content and a decent amount of inbound links. So consider marrying this tactic with a blogging strategy that provides the content links you send to the list.
3. Beyond opt-in conversion rates, your main concern is recouping advertising expenses as soon as possible. One way to do that (and also make immediate profit) is to send the new subscriber to a highly-relevant affiliate offer as soon as they opt-in.

Link Building on Keyword Domains

This is primarily an SEO strategy that takes advantage of two key factors: Google’s current algorithmic preference for exact-match keyword domains, and social media link attraction strategies (aka link baiting). The idea is to build up link equity and trust in the domain itself and then rake in search traffic for lucrative keyword phrases.

Your first task is to invest in the right keyword-match domain. I say “invest” because if it’s an exact-match keyword phrase that pulls significant traffic, someone already owns it. And I say “right” keyword-match domain because these keywords must revolve around a topic that is supported by lucrative affiliate programs.

Next, you must come up with a social-media friendly content strategy. So while the main portion of your site is professionally designed to make authoritative affiliate offers (say for credit cards), your blog must contain a steady stream of Diggable andbookmarkable content. What you’re after are the links more than the direct traffic, because you want to build the overall authority of the domain from a search engine standpoint.

To pull this off, the content strategy is just as crucial as the domain name, and it has to be aimed squarely at what people have demonstrated they want. Social media news sites love big resource posts related to getting ahead and getting things done. So if you’re promoting a credit card site, you need to promote content with financial “life hacks” that show people how to get more for their money, eliminate revolving debt, and live life well for less.

Building Authority Sites

Building an authority site allows you to enjoy the benefits of subscribers and search traffic, and it can be done without advertising or expensive domain names. You’re more focused on building a real brand and a site that also ranks well in search engines. If you take the time to do it right, you have a truly defensible online business that can’t be crippled by an algorithmic alteration.

Authority sites come into being because they deliver great content that people have demonstrated they want, and they make money by covering topics that can be supported by (among other things) lucrative affiliate programs. Your overall strategy involves matching up desirable topics with profitable products and services.

You don’t need a huge audience to make good money from affiliate marketing, but you do need a strong relationship with the right people. Publishers often worry that they’ll lose part of their audience if they make affiliate offers, even if those offers are highly relevant.

My response to that is, unless you’re using the wrong tactics (which we’ll explore in the next installment), people who desert you for making relevant offers are not the right kind of people. Put another way, would you rather have an audience of 5,000 that makes you $10,000 a month, or an audience of 40,000 that makes you $3,000 a month?

Sure, you want subscribers… and when you dish out great content on a regular basis, you’ll have them. But when it comes to making money with affiliate marketing, what you need are buyers. People who won’t even consider buying are not good for your business.

Copywriting Tactics That Work for Affiliate Marketing

Up next, we’ll explore various copywriting techniques that can be used to maximize affiliate sales. The key is to match up the right copy approaches with your content model and audience.

Stay tuned…

http://www.copyblogger.com/affiliate-marketing-content/

Top 10 Commandments of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs can be a big source of revenue. The key to maximizing your earnings is engaging your readers. Unlike traditional ads where you are paid for impressions or clicks, affiliates are only paid when/if a specific action is performed. The action might be a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, but regardless, you are not paid until you've compelled your readers to act.

With that in mind, here are the Top 10 Commandments for affiliate marketing success.

1.  Know Your Audience

The most successful way to use affiliate programs is to anticipate and meet the needs of your readers. Consider why they are coming to your site. What are you providing that they are looking for? Make sure the affiliate products you are promoting provide a solution to your audience's problems.

If you are writing about sports, don't put up affiliate ads for printer toner just because everyone has a printer and those programs have a high payout. The people who are coming to read commentary or get stats for their favorite teams aren't thinking about those things when they're on your site.

The more relevant the ads are to your readers, the more likely they will use them.

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2.  Be Trustworthy

Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don't believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.

It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you linkbacks, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.

If your visitors don't think you're being honest, they won't read anything else you have to say.

3.  Be Helpful

Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content. Give value to your content by making it helpful, useful, and informative.

Don't put up a list of your favorite books, hoping people will click on the affiliate link, purchase the books (just because you listed them), so you can cash in on a sale. Take some time to write a detailed review, and use affiliate ads to point them in the right direction if they decide to act on your information. That's what affiliate ads are for. If you write a great review recommending a book and readers buy the book because of it, you should get something for that.

But just throwing out links to products with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by visitors.

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4.  Be Transparent

Always disclose your affiliations. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and will feel better about contributing to your earnings. If they sense that you are being less than honest about your affiliations, they are savvy enough to bypass your link and go directly to the vendor just to avoid giving you referral credit.

Honesty and full disclosure is a necessary part to building a loyal reader base. They know they are supporting you by using your referral links. Make them happy and eager to do so.

5.  Select Carefully

Take the time to go through all the different options for products or services available through the programs. Put some thought into which products or services your readers may need or like. Also, change the ads around often, try different ones, and use different graphics and text to see which are the most effective.

It may take some time before you figure out the best formula, and you may also find that you need to continually rotate ads to attract more attention.

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6.  Try Different Programs

If one particular program doesn't seem to be working for you, try another one.

Affiliate programs don't look the same. They offer different products, services, and payment structures. Some programs will have a lifetime payout on sales 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 it fits better on your site's layout.

Also, check your favorite vendors to see if they run their own affiliate program. Sometimes you can go directly to the source. You're not limited to big affiliate networks.

Integrate systematic ad testing into your strategy to maximize your profits.

7.  Write Timeless Content

Your old content can still be valuable even though it's no longer on your front page. Take advantage of the long term opportunities by making sure you provide timeless content.

If visitors come across your older content first, and find that it offers dated information, they will leave right away. Of course, information moves forward, so relevant content changes quickly. You can make your content timeless simply by adding links to your updated articles on your old ones.

Many platforms allow you to show "most recent" or "most popular" or "related articles" on every page, so no matter how old the article is, it will always show access to your new ones. Your old content can make money for you indefinitely.

8.  Be Patient

Affiliate revenue grows and builds up with time. Remember that some programs offer lifetime payouts. If you refer a visitor, you may continue to make money from that one visitor even if he doesn't come back to your site. Also, as long as you have referral links still active in your old posts, they may still payout for you.

Affiliate programs aren't a get rich quick plan, but it provides opportunity to make passive income in the future.

9.  Stay Relevant

Keep up to date on the latest offerings of your affiliate programs. New ad units, advertisers, and tools are constantly being added to improve usability and be more visually appealing. Small changes go a long way in motivating action by readers. You may be left out in the dust by being complacent with your strategy.

Don't get lazy about monitoring trends and exploring new opportunities.

10.  Content Comes First

Above all else, your content must be your highest priority.

Your content is your foundation, the life blood on which the site exists. Without valuable and helpful content, readers won't come. Focus on providing excellent content, and the monetizingstrategies will work out.

Once you start compromising your content to cater to the affiliate programs or any other money making venture, you will lose your readers. Once that happens, you will lose the opportunity to receive any earnings from any of your ads, be they CPM, CPC, or referral based

.http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/affiliatemarketing/tp/affiliate-programs-top-10-tips.htm