How to Increase Your Site Traffic & Succeed With Your Affiliate Marketing Programs!

As an affiliate, your principle objective is to offer the items and services offered by your affiliate merchants. Unless you can do this, you can never expect to make much money with affiliate marketing programs. So how do you increase sales and revenues?

In light of current circumstances, you will need to build your site traffic before you can encounter more sales. It’s then a numbers game – the more individuals are mindful of the items you are offering, the more items you will sell.

Here are some tips that can help you increase your site traffic:

1. Optimize for the web crawlers

The best destinations on the web are the most visible ones. Presently there are many approaches to get added exposure on the web, however the best strategy is by far search engine optimization (SEO).

Too technical are the details to mention here, but just understand that SEO has the main purpose of getting your website ranked high on search engines!. We all know that searching for a keyword will produce thousands if not millions of results.

Logically, most people won’t spend much time sifting through the dozens of pages of results; they’ll likely stick to the first page for their selections. It goes without saying, the results on the first page will get the most traffic, thus positioning themselves above other sites to make more money!

2. Joining web registries

While web indexes are no more as broadly utilized as web search tools, a few individuals do use them. It is imperative that you don’t ignore the potential clients that these catalogs can send to your site.

To join a web registry, you will need to present your website for approval, and then it will be categorized.how to increase your site traffic - content

3. Fresh Content is a Must

Your site should periodically be revised to keep your guest coming back! Your site must have helpful content, and include tools that will help your intended interest group.

Make your site as simple to explore as could be expected under the circumstances, and make certain that your links work the way that they ought to. There is nothing that baffles individuals more than a “broken” link, and once your site has been tagged as “broken”, odds are thin that visitors will return.

4. Build an online group

Said another way, begin building relationships with your guests and prospects. To ensure these visitors return to your site, make sure they feel appreciated by you. Add value and solve some of their problems, and they will reward you with their business.

It’s really not much different making your affiliate marketing business work from a traditional business. Treating your customers right is the only way to keep them. 

The Japanese have an expression: The client is God. So long as you handle your customers with care and respect, and are intentional in trying to meet their needs, you will see that they will reciprocate the love!

http://www.corbintel.com/how-to-increase-your-site-traffic-and-succeed-with-your-affiliate-marketing-programs/

Don’t Make These 10 Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes!

As the affiliate space continually expands, the number of available networks has grown exponentially. Rookies might get the bright idea to join as many as possible to keep their options open. Instead, a seasoned publisher will know to select a few reputable networks and start small, giving each campaign abundant attention until it starts converting (or cancel it and replace with a higher quality offer). Whether affiliates join a public network like CJ or a private one like Madrivo, the success of a campaign relies more heavily on the affiliate’s deployment strategies than the source.

Not investing in the right resources
One of the tale tell signs of a newbie affiliate is their enthusiasm about making millions of dollars through their free email and hosting accounts. As with many things in life, affiliates must spend money to make money. Investing in servers, IPs, data, and a complex tracking interface allow serious publishers to capitalize on the potential ROI of campaigns they run. Many profitable affiliate companies consist of small teams that have a healthy knowledge of manipulating back end systems for mass exposure. Skimping on the necessary tools will not a wealthy mailer make.

Not tracking
An affiliate who doesn’t track may as well throw their money down a well and wait to see how much comes back up. It doesn’t make sense to put substantial effort into optimizing and deploying a campaign only to depend on the advertiser or network to report the earnings. Tracking platforms top the list of the required resources affiliates need to get started. Many times technical issues (and, sometimes, fraud!) significantly skew the earnings report. Without a tracking mechanism in place, affiliates can’t prove their case for leads they rightfully earned.

Not A/B Testing
Part of optimization includes a/b testing. The merchant and/or network are responsible for providing quality assets that appeal to their target consumer; affiliates, however, are responsible for deploying these assets in a way that maximize conversions. Whether they tweak subject lines, test two different email creatives in the same pool of data, or post banners on sites across different verticals, publishers have a lot of power when it comes to proper ad delivery and placement. A/B testing also benefits the advertiser, strengthening the working partnership with their affiliate and making them more likely to give them better payouts.

Scoping out Competitors
One of the best ways to understand consumer behavior is to understand what’s already out there. If an affiliate considers what people have already seen or experienced against what they’re offering, they can gauge which approaches are most effective for certain demographics as well as what brands are pushing as their selling points. While affiliates don’t want to copy their competitors, they should still know what their up against and take some advice from reputable companies within an industry. The key to a successful campaign is a unique value proposition without the sacrifice of what everyone else is already offering.

Running too many campaigns
Another flub new affiliates often make is running too many campaigns in the hopes that one will just happen to work out. When just starting out, its important to concentrate more on strategy and develop a broad knowledge of effective tactics before taking a shot in dark with several campaigns. If an affiliate focuses on just a few proven offers and spends their time dissecting what did and didn’t work, they’re more likely to be successful down the road. Affiliate marketing is a constantly growing and changing industry because it’s largely driven by consumer trends and evolving technology, both of which can transform overnight. Even more, the time they take to know what campaign performs well in a given vertical and what payout is competitive enough to be worthwhile will save them time and resources on running other offers that aren’t likely to convert. Good publishers will pursue a strong working knowledge of industry tools prior to launching every campaign they’re offered.

Not using SEO
SEO is not dead despite its archaic reputation. In fact, many of the online technological advances made in recent years are based primarily on the use of SEO but in a non-traditional way. While SEO is too complex to sufficiently summarize in a few sentences, new affiliates should take the time to learn about its versatility and different ways it can be incorporated into affiliate marketing. One foolproof way a startup publisher can earn some dough is by placing their links on a page that’s already keyword dense for optimal traffic. SEO works because it simply connects consumers with the information they’re seeking through the words or terms they use to find it. Why not place ads and links exactly where a customer would go to find it?

Not diversifying your affiliate products/verticalsAnother common misstep affiliates make is limiting themselves to running offers within one category. There are plenty of verticals to choose from, whether it be auto, education, dating or finance. All industries have spikes and lulls in sales and growth meaning that one campaign will do well during some seasons and others just won’t. While it’s still important to refrain from running too many offers at once, there’s a need for diversification, regardless of the number. If anything, it will help steady traffic flow and conversion rates when one campaign isn’t performing as well as others in a different industry.

Selling direct to the customer
Affiliates must remember that while they’re selling for a brand or advertiser, they’re not salesmen/women. Instead, they’re a floodgate between the product or service and its ideal consumer. New publishers need to let the merchant dictate the sales strategy and value proposition and then decide the best methods for pushing the advertisements. If too much time is spent building an online storefront for potential customers, it takes away from the energy that could be invested in the best ways to reach the users. Instead, affiliates should consider themselves traffic drivers that bring all of the consumers they reach back to the advertiser, who then becomes responsible for the actual sales transaction. Affiliates don’t sell product or service; they link consumers to it.

With the right balance of time, resources, and tenacity, many new affiliates grow their start up entities into highly lucrative affiliate marketing channels. Diversification, moderation, and experimentation will make a rookie into a pro overtime.

http://blog.madrivo.com/dont-make-these-10-common-affiliate-marketing-mistakes/

How to Be Successful At Affiliate Marketing!

Just like many other people affiliate marketing is how I have created a steady stream of income. There are many people that use affiliate marketing as a second source of income; I on the other hand can truly label myself as a full time internet marketer.

This has been a 6 year learning curve, but it has been worth every second . Internet marketing can be considered a “hit and miss” type of business. This is something that takes certain skills, mindsets, and a financial investment. 

The truth is most new affiliate marketers waste the majority of their start-up budget on things that don’t work and have proven to be unnecessary for their success.

How to Be Successful at Affiliate Marketing

Here are the most important things you need to know to be a successful affiliate marketer:

1. How to Generate Traffic

2. How to Choose the Best Offers to Promote
 
In order to make this clear I have to share my story. Being new at affiliate marketing, I put a lot of money into software and other products that promised me success that I never received. “Buy some my programs and…”

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against people educating others on how to become affiliate marketers; I am doing the same thing. My issue is people getting away from the core principles that helped them become successful in affiliate marketing. 

If you do choose to spend money on a certain course, just make sure that it actually teaches things like SEO and other techniques to help you generate traffic to your links. Although we all like a good pep talk here and there, it’s not worth spending your money on. Ok back to the information you really want.

Getting the Traffic You Need

With affiliate marketing traffic is the life of your business. This is more important than what you’re selling. How is this true? It’s simple, a lot of times you make your money off the traffic and not always from the sale. 

Where can you generate traffic? There are things called organic searches, Google Ad Words, Email Marketing, YouTube and more. No matter what platform you choose, be an expert at it and learn all there is to learn.

How Do You Know What Offers to Promote?
 
When you have a solid plan on what you are going to promote it will help you increase your success as an affiliate marketer. There are some products that will have a bad conversion rate no matter what you do. Pick products and offers that create solutions to people’s problems. 

This requires that you pay attention to the conversations people are having and the things they are complaining about. Finding products that create solutions to these problems are things you know are sure to sell.

So to recap the big secret to affiliate marketing success is to find out what the people need, and promote it by generating traffic. Traffic and a solid product equals affiliate success and the ability to carry my title as a full-time affiliate marketer.


http://www.grameen-info.org/how-to-be-successful-at-affiliate-marketing/

5 Off-Page SEO Tactics!

In “11 ecommerce SEO tips, from the trenches,” my post in August, I discussed how I manage on-page search engine optimization. But even the best on-page SEO may not be enough to get your ecommerce site ranked well in the search engines. Off-page SEO is also important to help you rank and drive traffic.

Think of off-page SEO as the promotion and marketing of your web pages. What I said in August is worth repeating: You don’t need to outsource SEO to do these tasks for you. With a little time, effort, and patience, you’ll be building your brand and off-page SEO in no time.

Here are five on-page SEO tactics that have helped my business.

1. Links
Don’t let the Google Penguin updates scare you from building high-quality backlinks. Links are still a major part of what drives a page’s popularity in the rankings and traffic. Avoid links from poor quality sites, paid links, and link schemes. How do you acquire these coveted high-quality links? Here are ideas that have worked for my business.

Join high quality directories. Not any old directory will do; I am referring to the top-of-the-line, well-established authority sites that actually get traffic and send referrals to you. 

Think Angie’s List for contractors, Wedding Wire for the wedding industry and DMOZ, which is notoriously hard to get in to. Don’t submit to every directory; chances are there will only one or two for your niche that are worth considering.

Get noticed by the media. Think it’s hard to get noticed? In the old days it was. But with sites like HARO — Help A Reporter Out — and PitchRate (among others) you can receive emails of journalists and bloggers looking for quotes. 

Follow the sites’ directions, send in a short catchy pitch, and you’ll be able to fetch a few links to your website in no time, and gain some good publicity.

Network with bloggers in your niche. Sponsored posts, advertorials, reviews, and guest blogs still go on. But I have only done a few and I don’t recommend it, as it can be a grey area now. 

I prefer getting to know a handful of bloggers in my niche and pitching unique insider stories to them that their readers will really care about. I’ve also done informational interviews that have brought links, visitors, and traffic to my site.

Comment on blogs. Don’t comment on hundreds of blogs. Instead, visit a few complementary blogs that you truly like and make meaningful, heartfelt comments on recent posts. Use your name, not your website or URL. Occasionally, I have had bloggers return the favor by linking to my items within a future blog.

Write fabulous blog posts and link to other bloggers or websites. I once wrote a post on wedding dress trends and linked to a major wedding dress company. I reached out to the company and tweeted that I had blogged about it. 

I received not only a link to my site from the company’s Facebook page (with over 200,000 likes) but also received a link on its “In The Press” page to my website — for free and without asking.

Ask clients, associates, vendors to link to you. A few will be happy to do it because of your working relationship. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Those are steps I’ve used to receive quality, authoritative links to my site for free. If in the course of your link building you are offered the opportunity to choose the text — i.e., anchor text — to link back to your website, vary that text. Use the keyword lists you built from your on-page SEO efforts to build links with these keywords.

2. Co-Concurrence

The term “co-concurrence” has been floating around the SEO world for a while. It refers to the proximity of keywords to a link. 

For example, when an article about a certain topic includes your brand name, the search engines derive from the text that your site is associated with that topic, or keyword. I believe it works to some extent — you don’t necessarily need a link to make the connection with readers and the search engines.

3. Build Social Media Profiles
Not every social media site will work for your company. Know where your customers hang out and focus on those sites. Women, brides, crafters, and do-it-yourself moms seem to favor Pinterest over Twitter. Businesses seem to prefer LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter. 

Know where your customers are and send links, articles, photos, and media to those networks. But don’t only share your content. Like and share other’s content too and they will return the favor. Not all of these links will carry the same weight in the search engines, but they do build brand awareness and others may share your link.

4. Get Local
Make sure your profile — including a link back to your site — is visible in Google My Business, Bing, Yahoo, YellowPages.com, Yelp, local directories to your city, and reviews. Don’t forget to list your location on your website.

5. Affiliate and Email Marketing
While affiliate marketing and email marketing won’t directly influence your search rankings, they will help with brand recognition. As people begin to recognize your company’s name and search specifically for that name in the search engines, it signals to the engines that your site is important. 

A key to any off-page campaign is getting your name and your associated products and services into the hands of people who will talk, share, and search.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/columns/the-diy-entrepreneur/73997-5-off-page-SEO-tactics-from-a-do-it-yourself-merchant

Some Internet & Affiliate Marketing Truths!

Here are some facts about internet and affiliate marketing that many don't want you to know.

Fact 1: It is impossible to buy any product and get rich quick, or overnight, or where no work or list or website or SEO or keywords or an autoresponder or a website or web hosting is not required. All of them and a lot more always are required, period!

Fact 2: Nobody ever went from $70,000 in debt to earning $374,692.84 in 11 days of getting started with some under the radar piece of software designed by a Russian programmer that steals traffic from NATO?

Fact 3: Nobody earns $1,000,000 a month with affiliate marketing or internet marketing. Some do earn that or more every year but most who say that are liars selling a worthless junk product?

Most online video sales websites making such outrageous claims use paid actors speaking to camera from a script at a hired mansion, with rented cars and faked proofs of someone else's earnings, and Clickbank payments.

The Only True Path to eventually earning more money than any job or so called career is by learning step by step from site's like this one from people genuinely earning a good income from their internet based business. 

So, keep working and learning my friends and the good times and increased wealth, freedom and happiness will come over the next few short years.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/sandj/blog/some-internet-and-affiliate-marketing-truths

Affiliate Marketing - Selecting The Best Company!

Deciding on the best affiliate marketing business is like getting a builder to get a brand new home, the builder needs to be the one who can be trustworthy and will assist. 

Doing work is similar to that, you need to use people whom you can count to instead of the the one that can help destroy your company. 

Affiliate marketing is a great and new method internet business also it can assist firms that want many being seen to numerous people as is feasible. 

Like all assets, you'll find hazards in employing the expertise of Rohnert Park web design businesses but these suggestions below will help you to find the right company to deal with your small business.

A high level new comer to this type of company then you've to travel the more seasoned firm, work collection is important - I am not implying that new and upcoming internet promotion companies will not be reliable but. 

Attempt to inquire for his or her profile so you can examine the operate they certainly and just how effective they could be. The harder previous works they did the more reliable they are given that they presently knew the way it operates of affiliate marketing.

Suits your decision Body essential thing about locating a web based company knows your requirements. You don't just acquire their professional services lacking the knowledge of what you really want to do or whatever you prepare for your company is. 

Some internet marketing companies have specialties and it is important to understand for you to do to be able that you could get the firm containing the identical goal or specialties whilst you.

Suggestions - don't overlook the one individual to another even in the internet generation. You have access to numerous help that you can in this area. 

Should you know companies who had tried online marketing then request recommendations and suggestions as to what web marketing company to see. Much more advertising online, it is in reality never poor to find out the opinion of others since doing work on your own can be a hard to do.

Internet is limitless when it comes to space possibilities if you decide to desire to maximize these traits then you have to go to the expert. In operating online, SEO Rohnert park companies are definitely the think-tank on that area. 

They will let you market your products online thus as a way to everyone to buy it. In addition there are risks like every other project however with the correct people, it is in reality usually to come for the organization.

http://www.feiradopovo.com.br/index.php?do=/blog/37568/affiliate-marketing-selecting-the-best-company/

How To Become A Social Media Affiliate Marketer!

Times are hard, at least that what’s being rammed down our throat, right…?

Times are as hard as you want them to be, it’s your choice, you can either jump on the whining wagon of misery and hardship or be different. ‘Make your own luck’.

Don’t you find that those that spend the best part of their lives moaning about governments, tax’s and gas prices are generally those that are least prepared to bust a gut or work their fingers to the bone. In other words, get off their backside and do something about it.

If you are a perpetual moaner but do try to do something about your situation, then I apologize for my rant. My experiences of these people has more than been justified, several times over, I can assure you. Rant over

A question.. would you buy a gold watch off of someone you had never met?

Chances are, probably not. But. If we were to build a relationship first and you like my watch’s then maybe or probably yes.

Affiliate marketing first and foremost is about making a connection with your audience – engaging with them. You can offer those on your website the greatest offer the internet has ever seen but if you don’t first gain their trust so that they actually listen when you speak, it will all be in vain. They will click off your site at lightning speed.

With this said, your are going to need to network with other like minded people, try making contact with similar bloggers or business owners in your niche and invite them to view your stuff. In return, tell them that you will too spread the word of what they offer. 

I say this with some caution. Be sure to like the content they provide and approve of their work ethic. You don’t want to be associated with someone who provides poor content or worse still is going to spam you or your followers with mindless garbage.

When I first set out to build a site, be it a niche or high authority site I never look to monetize it until I know it’s well optimized and climbing the rankings. In fact, I will not monetize it until it’ just approaching page 1 of google. This benefits my site in many ways:-

* It forces me to work hard on providing good content
* It also forces me to not be lazy with my on-site SEO
* It enables me to get a good amount of content uploaded to the site before the traffic turns up.
* This time that passes is time to tweak, make changes, iron out the cracks.

Okay, so your site is now all good you’re ready to go, what next?

When writing your content be sure to include your affiliate links when mentioning a product or service that can help your readers see the same results. I try never to promote a product that I haven’t tried myself. 

The exception to this is when someone I trust profusely recommends something that I am yet to try for myself. I always end up buying the product too though as I find promoting just any old garbage to be immoral. 

I like many of you in many moments of weakness have been caught up in the bull-shit that unfortunately plagues our industry. I call it, “Shinny Shite”.

Gone slightly off track here – include links in your posts, and include images/banners where you can. Not too much though, remember your stuff needs to engage not disengage.

Social media has changed the way we do Affiliate Marketing forever. It gives you the platform to promote your stuff for free. All you have to do is again provide some value, in return for another subscriber to your blog or like your fanpage. 

I see so many ‘newbie’ and surprisingly experienced marketers miss the fundamentals of social media with regards to affiliate marketing. 

They try to make the sale. Of course you need to make sales to make any money. But, try selling directly on facebook, twitter or indeed any social platform is a sure fire way to lose what credibility you have with them running in the opposite direction.

http://oranckay.net/become-social-media-affiliate-marketer/

Top Reasons You Should Hire an Affiliate Marketing Coach!

The affiliate marketing industry is an unusual one. On the one hand, it is incredibly easy to get started with affiliate marketing – all you need is a reasonably modern computer or tablet PC and an Internet connection.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people who try to start an affiliate marketing business fail within the first year. The low barrier to entry is both a blessing and a curse.

If you want to succeed at affiliate marketing, then you will need to have a sound business plan and a clear strategy.

If you understand the world of SEO and marketing then you have an advantage over a lot of people who try to get started in the industry, but if you do not then you could find yourself floundering quite quickly.

The best way to get past the stage where you “don’t know what you don’t know” is to hire an affiliate marketing coach.

What Can an Affiliate Marketing Coach Do For You?
An affiliate marketing coach is a lot like a sports coach. They offer both short and long term practical guidance as well as management in a more philosophical sense too. A good coach will have a proven, effective blueprint for affiliate marketing.

This blueprint will include everything that you need to get started – from how to structure your website to which SEO techniques to use and what approach to take with your mailing list. 

They won’t go so far as to write your sales copy for you, but they will show you how other people have succeeded and help you as you try to emulate that success by looking at what works and adding your own unique twist to it.

The biggest benefit offered by an affiliate marketing coach, however, is accountability. During those early stages of building your business it is easy to feel demoralized. Traffic peaks and tails off quickly, you get a couple of sales one day then nothing for a week – this is normal, but it can be stressful to deal with.

A good affiliate marketing coach will be on hand to act as a sounding board when you need them, and will also call you to check up on your progress periodically. It’s easy to lie to yourself, but it is much harder to let down a third party that is invested in your success. 

No matter how motivated you are, there will be occasions when that motivation wanes, and you will be glad to have someone to push you on those days.

A Fresh Perspective:
Another thing that a qualified and experienced coach offers is a fresh perspective. If your pages aren’t converting as well as you like, or your engagement figures are low no matter what you post, then you may find that having someone else take a look at your efforts may be beneficial.

When you spend a lot of time working on a website, mailing list, sales page or social media profile it is only natural to become blind to obvious flaws and problems. 

You can give yourself a fresh perspective simply by taking a break for a day or two, but having someone knowledgeable and experienced available to take a look at your work for you is always beneficial.

Finding an Affiliate Marketing Coach:
There are a lot of experienced affiliate marketing coaches out there. Some coaches specialize in a specific niche, while others offer more general advice that caters to almost all niches. 

Some coaches run large group courses, while others take on a handful of people to mentor at any one time, and limit the number of people they work with so that they can give each person a lot of attention.

Talk to a few coaches and try to find one that suits your personality and your working style. The mentor-student relationship is a complex one and you need to find a coach that you feel comfortable and confident in working with.

Having a good coach will greatly increase your chances of succeeding in the world of affiliate marketing. If you can start to turn a profit in your first year, then the chances of building a sustainable long-term business increase dramatically.

http://blog.robfore.com/affiliate-marketing-coach/

Doing Affiliate Marketing The Smart Way!

New affiliates are encouraged to create their own websites, master SEO and update their websites frequently with fresh and original content.  The upside to this approach is that an SEO'd site will generate free traffic from search engines.

Also, you get to brand yourself and your readers will know where to find you.  The downside is that this approach takes time to deliver results. 

Also, with Google's frequent updates to their algorithms, SEO has been reduced  from being some kind of science to a hit and miss mashed with guess work.  Changes in a Google algorithm has had super-affiliates' incomes being reduced by as much as 90%!

This approach alone does not work very well for an affiliate marketer.  If you already own a website, it will be of huge help to start building a list, aggressively so. 

I believe that, as an affiliate your list is your only true possession. With a list of subscribers, you can switch affiliate programs as you see fit, as long as you  remain relevant to your list.

Building a funnel however,  ensures sustainability and growth for your affiliate marketing business.

How does an affiliate funnel work?

A typical sales funnel starts with a free giveaway in exchange for a subscriber's email. You will need an email marketing system for this purpose. As is  typical of a funnel, you may gain a large number of subscribers.

As you introduce your subscribers to your affiliate offers, the number of those who do click through may decrease.

The numbers of conversions or sales will even be lower.  This will be offset by the new subscribers you are gaining on a daily basis.

When using a funnel, your main focus is generating traffic to your free giveaway and nothing else. 

Affiliate funnels, once setup correctly, reduce the pressure of having to sell. Once your automated emails are setup, they do the selling for  you.

What do you need to setup a sales funnel?

1.  An email marketing & autoresponder system (try the 30 day free trial)

2.  Capture page or web form to collect email addresses-some auto-responders include these in your membership.  Get Response does have capture page templates as well.

3. A product to give away.  This could be a good ebook, email course, coupons etc.  This must be  relevant to your target market.

4.  Once all is setup, you need to work on TRAFFIC.

This is the simplified version of what is involved in sales funnels. New affiliate marketers may feel intimidated by auto-responders.  In fact, most delay list building for fear of messing things up while working with auto-responders.

If you are not ready to create campaigns and work with email marketing software, I'd recommend that you take a look at CBPassiveIncome. 

This is a licensed product that has the whole funnel setup for  you (with readily  monetized auto-responder emails). The license also includes a free giveaway and a website that you will use to capture emails.  It works for both experienced affiliates and new alike.

Download Patric Chan's free report and learn more

Read the report and perform your due diligence in determining whether this automated sales funnel is for you!

http://www.ibosocial.com/mbasa/pressrelease.aspx?prid=381487