Affiliate Marketer : First Steps and Know How

I remember way back in the day when I joined my first affiliate program. I was a total novice of course but I was excited that I had my very own link to earn money from. All I had to do was drive traffic to the link and I would earn money. Sounds simple, but I found quickly that affiliate marketing is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Traffic is the lifeblood of just about any business but actually getting that traffic is much easier said then done. If you’re just starting out as an affiliate, there are a couple of things you can do to get your business off of the ground floor.

Best Melee Weapon are your family and friends. Making money off of your family and friends is not the idea here. What you’re trying to do is get feedback and opinions from those you know and trust. The opinion of your family and friends can tell you whether your affiliate website is worth pursuing. I should warn you that many of your friends and family can be your toughest critics and you need to take their opinion with a grain of salt. They might tell you bad things in order to prevent you from failing.

Networking is just about as important as traffic for your business. You really need to get to know other online business owners. Doing so will enable to share knowledge and ideas with one another as well as get help that others simply can not provide you with. Forums are far and away the best and easiest way to meet other like minded people online. Membership in a forum is usually free and many times you can even use the forum to generate additional revenue for your business. Once you’ve made a few online friends, you will have a group of people who can give the best and most up-to-date advice.

Offline forms of advertising are undoubtedly the most overlooked forms of advertising for online entrepreneurs. Believe it or not, many people still see URL’s offline and then actually visit those websites. What’s really great about offline advertising is that in many cases it’s much cheaper than advertising online. Many small newspapers such as those circulated at colleges offer advertising opportunities at ultra low prices. Distributing flyers is also a really great way to get the word out about your affiliate website and all it really takes is a couple of dollars and a little elbow grease. If you live in a large metropolitan area, there are likely hundreds of places that will allow you to post your flyer for free.

Online, it’s important to remember that content is king. If you want to generate a steady flow of traffic you need to be able to create good quality content. Writing articles and submitting them to directories is the easiest and cheapest way to start getting traffic to you website. If you can write, you can create a steady and consistent stream of traffic to your website.