What should I know about affiliate marketing?

[ellkimmel]

I am just getting started with affiliate marketing. I have my host set up and just signed up with clickbank. I am wondering what I should know about affiliate marketing before dive in.

I have done a little bit of research prior to this but I want to ask anyone who comes to this thread who knows a little bit about Aff Marketing to just put a little bit of advise down. Anything is good, a lot is great!

I just want to get a firm grasp on everything before I head into it.

Thank You!

 

[BrainPower]

this of course is just my opinion.. so here goes

focus on a niche and/or product that you understand

determine how you are going to gather the webtraffic pertaining to that niche/product

web marketing is constantly evolving, so always check out the latest trends

best of luck!

 

[GF]

My advice - Clickbank is pretty saturated.

Most of my money is not made on Clickbank since "everyone" promotes off of Clickbank.

Like BrainPower said, you need to focus on a specific niche.

Best of luck,
Galel

 

[alemcherry]

I too agree with the advice on niche. Select something that you are comfortable with, something that pays well.

Also, the most important aspect is how you get the traffic. PPC ads or any other paid traffic need not make you any profit. You can end up losing money, unless you have the ability to get cheap quality traffic.

Affiliate system works as a monitization option for webmasters who get organic, niche traffic. The only safe way to make money though affiliate program is to own a high quality site with good traffic.

So your efforts must go to generating traffic. Signing up with clickbank or any other network should be the last step and the easiest. Once you start running a website you will know how hard it is to get traffic.

 

[ellkimmel]

Thanks a lot for the feedback! Very much appreciated

 

[bauger]

Yes

Choose a niche that you are going to like to promote. Usually pick one that you at least have an understanding about so it won't be to hard for yourself.
If you are a good writer you can write article and make a blog to post to it and other article directories.

 

[enlytend]

Picking a good niche is important, here are some more tips:

- Affiliate marketing is a different mindset from PPC - Putting up a bunch of banners and hoping someone clicks on them is the least efficient way to make money because your visitors need to BUY (or sign up for) something. You're a salesperson for your merchants. Engage your visitors with your content - give them the information they need to make an informed purchase or some other value-added content and they're more likely to buy. (Google will like your site better too.)

- Pick good merchants - Would you buy their product/service or recommend it to your friends and family? If not, don't waste your time pushing it on your visitors. Also, check out the merchant's reputation - merchants that rip off their customers won't treat their affiliates any better!

- Read the affiliate policies and terms carefully. If you don't understand something or you have questions, contact the affiliate manager (the contact info is usually someplace on the program details page) - that's what they're there for.

- Get good advice - Don't waste your money on "get rich quick" info products. If some ebook or video sounds really good check out the author before you buy - Are they a respected "name" in the business? Are they a presenter at events like Affiliate Summit? There are a LOT of posers out there - people with no more experience than you have, peddling, "get rich with affiliate marketing" products when they haven't personally got a clue. Join some of the more affiliate-oriented forums too.

 

[elias75]

may I just add content...
search engines do like fresh original content (althought there is loads of argument here) and frequently adding articles, news and info bits will help your site to appear higher at search engine rankins thus more traffic thus more clicks thus more convertions.

 

[enlytend]

In affiliate marketing more traffic doesn't necessarily = more conversions. You can have a low ctr and high conversions or vice versa. If you're trying to sell something and your traffic isn't in "buy mode" (for example, if they're just looking for information) you won't make more sales.

But adding USEFUL content that supports the products or services you're selling will help your conversions .

 

[TashaR]

The best advice I can give echoes that given above. When you are starting out, find a niche that you have at least some understanding/interest in - it will make your working life a lot more fun - and easier (since you won't be learning about a topic/industry from the ground up).

Also, promote only good quality products - stuff that you would be happy for your family or best friend to buy.

Give your readers/site visitors good quality, interesting content and they'll visit you over and over again. Stay on top of the current trends in the area and be the first to present this content to your readers - they'll love you for it!

All the best,
Tasha

 

[gericsb]

Some really fabulous advice above!

I think some of the key points are to:
1) Pick a specific niche that you are passionate about and have a lot of knowledge in
2) Make sure there are sufficient numbers of people searching for that niche (products/services in that niche).
3) Identify whether there are affiliate products/merchants that exist within that niche (use Linkshare or Commission Junction)
4) Create good, useful content that helps people solve specific problems related to your niche.
5) Get BACKLINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I am not sure how advanced you are in affiliate marketing. Since I find myself frequently psoting the same types of answers to basic affiliate marketing questions on a number of forums, I took a short-cut and created a more comprehensive article about the basics of affiliate marketing.

Beginners may find it useful-->http://www.killerincome.net/affiliate-marketing-basics/

Good luck and remeber, affiliate marketing is a great way to make money, but it's not easy and definitly not a shortcut to riches.

 

[jsdomains]

great info above!

 

[joeljonathan]

Choose a niche where you can actually add some value. If all you are doing is slapping up an affiliate link on a website with some copy cat content then you will probably not be successful. Ask yourself how you can make your affiliate site actually better than the main website of the merchant who you are an affiliate of. One way that you could do this is to add a comparison feature of some kind on your site so that people can view ratings and compare features from many different merchants.

 

[ellkimmel]

Choose a niche where you can actually add some value. If all you are doing is slapping up an affiliate link on a website with some copy cat content then you will probably not be successful. Ask yourself how you can make your affiliate site actually better than the main website of the merchant who you are an affiliate of. One way that you could do this is to add a comparison feature of some kind on your site so that people can view ratings and compare features from many different merchants.

Great info Joel. I really appreciate all of the comments above. I have taken advice from the posts in this thread and it has really helped thus far.

 

[xrvel]

Great info Joel. I really appreciate all of the comments above. I have taken advice from the posts in this thread and it has really helped thus far.

Have you started your first aff web?
I'd like to see it because i am learning about it too now