Eight Bite-Sized Tips to Break Out of Affiliate Limbo
Copyright (c) 2006 By Kori Puckett    www.webpay-success.com/sas

It may be popular but it's not easy. Affiliate programs are the most popular way to make money on the Internet. But making a living online from them is hard enough with different people telling you different things. However, there are some techniques you can follow to ensure your success. These 8 steps will increase your affiliate sales and, more importantly, your name recognition which will mean more affiliate sales to come.

*Have a list? Send a mailing to it. If you do have a list, no matter how small or large it is, you should always start there. They are your subscribers and they deserve to be the first to hear anything new you have to say. Plus, if you've established a warm relationship with them and your product/service is targeted towards them, you just might see some sales. (Isn't that what we all want?)

*Don't have a list? Well hurry up, find one, and do some advertising. If you don't have a list, find someone else's and advertise in theirs. If you're just starting with your advertising, then start small then build your way up to the top sponsor and solo ads. You don't want to blow away too much money on an untested ad.

*Offer a free report to spread around like wildfire. Otherwise known as viral marketing. Of course you can't just offer any old free report. It actually has to be a good one. And preferably one that you created or had created for you, because if you do it in e-book format, then some places won't accept it unless you are the author. You can put affiliate links in it or just point people back to your website where you have your affiliate products on display.

*Be different than the competition by offering something extra. The best of the best affiliates offer something different from the average affiliate. That's why they are the best of the best and the average are just average. They give bonuses (preferably unique ones) to people who buy a product through their link instead of their competition's. And they build up a loyal mailing list that way, too.

*Write your own articles with affiliate link in resource box. In addition to the previous tip, you could put your affiliate link in the resource box of your article and let them know about the bonuses they'd get by ordering from you. For example, if you were an affiliate for an instant sales letter software program, your article could be about sales letters and you would include your sales letter software affiliate link and bonuses in the resource box.

*Use pay-per-click search engines. The trick is to choose targeted words that don't cost you a dollar (or even five dollars) per click. You can go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ and see how often popular, targeted words for your niche were searched for during the last month. Then you can go to Overture.com, enter a few keywords, click on the Advertiser's Max Bid link at the top right and see how much the top advertisers are paying for those terms. Then chose your keywords by balancing how much you're willing to pay per visitor and how much the term was searched for in the past 30 days.
(Little hint: You may want to include the price of the product in the description to keep any freebie seekers away. This is costing you money, so you only want those who are serious about buying clicking on that link).

*Do some offline advertising for free publicity. You could do press releases, radio or television interviews, classifieds in newspapers or magazines, posting fliers in your local market, etc. Your imagination is your only limit (besides the law, in some cases, so check. Not many people think about going offline when they have an online business, and still less actually do it (guilty as charged, at least for the time being. You can be different and bring in a fresh audience that hasn't been jaded by the Internet.

*Offer a free e-course with affiliate link(s) added throughout. This will get people to: 1) visit your site if you're leading them to a subscribe form and/or 2) allow you to follow-up with them several times. You'll have a better chance of making the sale and you'll get some traffic. Same rule applies as the free report/e-book--it has to be a quality e-course, meaning valuable information that people can actually use/learn from. Otherwise, your reputation goes downhill and so will your ability to sell anything.

And there you have it. Eight tips you can start using today to increase your affiliate sales and commission. Of course you don't have to do all 8 of them, but using any one of them will get you out of your affiliate limbo nightmare.
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Kori Puckett, a successful affiliate marketer in the non-internet marketing niche, has successfully used these strategies to make more money online. For more ideas on how you too can make more money as an affiliate, even if you have no large mailing list or high traffic web site, then visit www.webpay-success.com/sas