Affiliate marketing is a pretty good way to promote a business and if its not something you are doing you could be at a disadvantage. The trouble is that there are so many programs out there it’s difficult to know where to go. I have developed some strategies for doing this that you should find helpful in find the right program for you.
Obviously the most important consideration is which affiliate program you join in the first place. So how do you decide?
1. Do your research
If you see that programme that looks like its going to make you the next super affiliate don’t jump straight in and join. Read reviews about it on the internet – you will have no problem finding them in Google. Just type in the name of the program then the word review afterwards. Also read more than one review as some are clearly written by people who are members of the said affiliate program so are biased.
2. Affiliate Support
What does the program offer in terms of support? It doesn’t matter how impressive the site looks in terms of banners, articles etc. If you cant get personal support. Before you even think of joining send some probing emails asking awkward questions What if? How? When? If you don’t get satisfactory answers if any at all – look elsewhere. Find out what they offer in terms of affiliate support and make sure they are specific about it too.
3. Affiliate Marketing Software.
You are going to need a fair bit of software to set up your website and maintain it in terms of tracking, additions, amendments etc. Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the best but its very expensive and has a bit of a steep learning curve.
Some affiliate programs offer an administrative interface that will build the website for you which is fine as long as the content is unique. These interfaces can do other things such as analyse website hits, sales etc. Fortunately the internet has a lot of free resources you can use. If you want to blog you can use blogger.com – its free and search engines love it. Then there is social networking sites like Digg. In fact you can affiliate market and make money with these alone without using your own website.
4. Marketing and Advertising Tools.
Ask yourself if you know how to market your website. You can’t just produce it and hope to make money from it if people do not know its there. This is a fundamental oversight that I encounter a lot. You join a program as a newbie then get no help whatsoever with promoting your site so you end up wasting your money. You need to Search Engine Optimise (SEO) your site, promote it using social networking, blogs, pay per click etc. If you aren’t getting this advice from the affiliate I would normally say move onto something else. But you may want to stay with the affiliate program if its good quality and learn SEO etc from the many free resources on the internet.
The very best of luck with your affiliate marketing ventures
written by Jay Jayesser




















