Affiliate marketing primarily focuses on referring customers from one web site to another via hyperlinks or advertisements. In a strong affiliate marketing program, businesses providing complimentary services or products form a group where customers are referred to each other for specific needs. In most programs, the referring site receives some sort of compensation for each referral or visit from a customer. Read this article for tips on setting up and using a strong affiliate marketing program for your business site.
When building affiliate links on your blog, don’t forget that you need traffic on your site first. If no one is reading your blog, there’s no one to click on your affiliate links, no matter how glowing your recommendation or well-place your advertisements. Build a readership for your blog and then join an affiliate program to take advantage of that traffic.
Look for affiliate programs that offer high commission rates. Some programs offer 100% or higher commission on the products they sell through you. Don’t dismiss items like this as scams. These programs end up making more money through the follow up sales so it’s worth it to them to pay out high commissions in order to gain a new customer for the long term.
Don’t try to disguise your affiliate links as something else. Be open and honest about your affiliations. Visitors to your site will be more likely to follow the links if they know they aren’t being tricked into doing so. Building an honest relationship with people is the best approach to a successful campaign.
When joining an affiliate marketing program, remember that you need significant traffic to your site or blog to see any income from your affiliate links. Do not expect to create a blog, slap on some affiliate links, and start earning. Build up your quality content and readership first, then you will be able to make money using affiliate marketing.
Follow up a sales shipment with an add-on product catalog to keep orders coming. This makes the customer much more likely to become a repeat customer. Make the catalog related to their purchase and be sure to put their name on the label, not “customer” or “resident”. This also keeps an advertisement for your business active in their home or office.
Offer a bonus product or service to customers who buy through your affiliate link. This way they will be more inclined to buy through you and not someone else. This will also encourage them to use your program in the future to purchase items because they will receive something in return.
Swap links with other high-quality websites to help build up your backlinks. Even if your website is fully Search Engine Optimized, you’ll get no traffic unless you ensure that other websites are linking to you. Make sure to leverage social media to get others to link to you, including being “retweeted” on Twitter.
Do your homework on the product you are promoting so you can be sure it’s a quality product. You can also speak with others who have tried the product. Offer only honest reviews on the products you are selling. Your customers will trust you and will be sure to use you in the future.
Check the conversion rate of customers that turn into sales before you commit to an affiliate program. Your time will otherwise be wasted on directing customers to their site. Check their website to see if it would make you want to buy something. If not, you may want to continue to look for another program.
If you made a connection with a prospect regarding what dream they have, remember that dream on your follow up contact with them. Bringing up their goal has two main purposes. It reminds them of why they want to go forward and it lets them know that you cared enough to remember.
A good tip for many affiliate marketers is to use ranking tools and ranking software to research what works best for your particular audience. This is a great way to find out if a particular ad is not generating any clicks and you will also get the added benefit of understanding your readers more.
Try to figure out what the trends are going to be before they become trends and then capitalize on them through your affiliate marketing strategies. If you know the Olympics are coming up in the next year, begin integrating articles about teams or players sprinkled with affiliate links so that when people start searching once the Games have begun, they’ll find YOU at the top of the listings!
Be a good role model. When affiliates sign up to promote your products, they are doing so because they trust you to some degree. Don’t disappoint them. Show your affiliates that you do quality work and conduct your business honestly. They will be loyal to you if you treat them fairly and with respect.
Use time-management software. It can be easy for affiliate marketing to take over your life. Time-management software can track how long you have been working for and alert you of when it is time to take a break. You can also use the software to work out your hourly wage from affiliate marketing.
When using affiliate marketing, be sure to spend some time discovering what type of advertisements are going to be most effective for your demographic. Certain clients will like flashy advertisements. Other customers will prefer unobtrusive ads. Make sure that you spend a decent amount of time figuring out who you want to target.
As mentioned earlier, being a member of a strong affiliate marketing group can have a significant impact on the overall success of your business site. Not only do you receive referrals from other sites, you also receive compensation from others when you refer customers or visitors to their sites. Leveraging affiliate marketing, helps multiple smaller businesses compete with larger ones, by combining their individual products or services.
