Strategies for Succeeding in Affiliate Marketing

The practice of affiliate marketing on the internet is one in which an affiliate places either a banner advertisement, a text link advertisement, or some other sort of referral on their web site which leads a customer back a merchant’s site. The three players in this relationship are the merchant, the affiliate, and the customer.

One specific example of this dynamic relationship is affiliates placing Amazon banner advertisements on their site to refer visitors back to Amazon to purchase products. There a literally thousands of affiliate marketing programs available to web site owners and these include the huge influence of Google and down to smaller targeted merchants.

But the question is how to succeed with affiliate ads to make money? For sites with large volumes of traffic, succeeding with affiliate marketing can be easy, but for sites with less traffic, much hard work must be completed to succeed in affiliate marketing. Below are some time-test strategies for succeeding in the affiliate marketing game. (If you're just starting out, you can get the IM Toolchest with hundreds of free Affiliate Marketing resources. You can also get a lot of information and tips about starting & building an Internet Marketing home-based business at the Home Business Reader.

One successful technique is to highlight only one product per page. Many affiliates will clutter up a web page with dozens of advertisements, but the best strategy is to minimize ads allowing viewers to focus on the singular ad. The affiliate marketer must provide value to the reader of their site. The content that is contained on the page along with the affiliate advertisement should provide the reader with valuable information or an attractive offer the reader cannot ignore. Always place the affiliate ad in a place on your site that it is hard for readers to miss. Affiliate marketers must also find a way to bring in traffic. One way to do this is to publish articles or reports in online e-zines. Past history has shown that the practice of publishing two articles per week of 300 to 350 words on e-zine sites can increase traffic to a website greatly. One specific tip in this area is to always place a compelling call to action for the reader at the end of the article.

Site optimization is another critical step to succeeding with affiliate marketing. Content on your site should be keyword rich with engaging and informative information. Sites should have pages with consistent look and feel to allow readers to easily navigate through the material. The arena of affiliate marketing is extremely competitive. If those that enter this area follow these foundational steps they will find they have a big advantage over their competition in the drive for profits through affiliate marketing.