What Every Affiliate Marketer Needs to Know Part 1

What Every Affiliate Marketer Needs to Know Part 1
Copyright © 2008 The Christian Success Institute
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Every affiliate marketer needs to look for and use the most effective and the least expensive methods to generate traffic to his or her affiliate website. The concept of affiliate marketing is really profound when you take a close look. Someone offers a product or products for sale. The most cost effective advertising for a merchant is to seek affiliates to offer his or her products on their website. The affiliates earn money when a prospective customer visits his affiliate website and makes a purchase.

This is truly a unique opportunity for the average individual to create a successful business, selling other merchants' products. There is no stock to maintain, no overhead (except for the cost of a website.) An smart affiliate can make a good living simply advertising the products of merchants who offer an affiliate program. Genius!

There is one major catch to this whole thing. An affiliate has to be able to generate traffic (a steady flow of interested customers) to his affiliate offerings. Unfortunately, statistics say that 97% of affiliate marketers earn little to no money. The reason is a simple one, when you take a close objective look at what the majority of affiliate programs offer their affiliates as far as training goes. Most affiliate programs offer several overused email or ezine ads or give advice that is old and not affective in today's Internet. This is why you see the same ads repeated thousands of times in emails, ezines and newsletters.

What is that secret ingredient that is missing? What is it that results in 97% failure? The better question is to look at the 3% who are racking in the dough. What does this 3% of affiliate marketers have that the other 97% are missing. You can sum it up in one little word - 'TRUST.' The successful Internet Marketer has worked diligently to build a list of people who trust their opinion. "How do they do that?" you ask. Well, I am so glad you asked.

There are quite a number of ways to do this, if you want to make serious money selling products. The very first thing that you need to do is change your mind. The biggest problem is that there are so many scam programs on the Internet that appeal to the lazy 'sluggard' who wants to join a program (because the ad copy is so appealing) and sit on his couch at home, do absolutely nothing and earn thousands of dollars every day. No matter what they promise, no matter how easy they make it sound, if you are not willing to put forth the effort to become a successful Internet Affiliate Marketer, you'll soon join the ranks of the 97% of failures. The secret is to forget about just selling a product. There are thousands of others who are trying to sell the same product or service.

To become truly successful is going to take time and effort and a willingness to listen to wise counsel (those who have been there and done that.) There are ways to 'build' yourself a good business (the operative word is 'build') and 'create' a sustaining income.

The successful Internet Affiliate Marketer builds trust in his opinion. This takes time but the rewards speak for themselves. No matter what 'they' say, the product doesn't sell itself. If this were true then the thousands of people selling the same product would all be rolling in money. Think of it this way. If a total stranger tells you that the product he is offering you is the very best and you need to buy it from him within the next few minutes, would you believe him? If a trusted 'expert' that you have been following because they give you loads of information and have built a relationship with you offers you a product he indorses and tells you that you really need to get it, would you?

How do you build trust? Well, you need to purchase a really expensive website, pay a ton of money to have it hosted and spend a gazillion dollars advertising. NOT! The best advice I can give is:

1.) to pick a 'niche' (some area of interest that you really like),

2.) learn what you can, research it

3.) read as many articles about it that you can find

4.) begin to write about it, write articles (go to article directories and learn their article writing guidelines)

5.) Submit your articles to as many directories as possible.

6.) Sign up with one of the 'blog' communities (Blogger, Bogspot, WordPress, etc) and post the same articles that you submit to the directories in your own blog.

7.) Write, write , read, write, post, post, post, etc.

8.) Join Social Networks (facebook, twitter, etc.)

So far none of the above has cost you a penny (only your time). I'll let you in on a little secret about blog. The Search Engines love 'em. They are indexed quickly and revisited every time you post. When you make a post, the blog software sends a 'ping' (notice) to the SE spiders that diner is on the table.

This is just an introduction. There is a lot more coming in this series of articles. If you are serious about becoming successful and earning a good income, get started today.

Pastor Bobby is an Evangelist, Success Coach and The Director of The Christian Success Institute . Pastor Bobby believes that God wants all who love Him to be successful in life. Through the diligent study of God's Wisdom everyone can learn the biblical principles that God has given to be successful in every area of life. Visit http://pastorbobby.com

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