An online affiliate marketing business is a great way to start marketing on the internet. The affiliate business opportunity offers minimal startup costs and allows you to promote products that are already in proven demand. When you also consider that product distribution and support is not your responsibility, it’s no wonder affiliate marketing is considered the best business to start online.
However, one problem that arises for many when they start marketing their first affiliate products is how to market them. There are so many different promotional techniques to choose from that it can be downright confusing. The key to success here is to pick just a few techniques you’re comfortable with and focus on them.
Let’s look at 5 different techniques you can use to start marketing your affiliate products that have proven to be very effective.
Junk mail
If you decide to capture the names of website visitors on a squeeze page, and you really should, now you can market to them. By keeping in touch with this list and regularly promoting products that are related to the one they originally opted into, you can build a steady stream of income.
blog
Setting up a blog that reflects content that is consistent with the niche you are promoting will allow you to capture subscribers attracted to the blog content. The key difference here is that your initial contact is through being attracted to the free content you offer and not by responding to a promotional ad.
Now it’s up to you to develop a relationship with them, make them trust you, and then eventually buy from you. Their feedback is also great feedback that can tell you what you’re doing right and of course what they won’t like.
merchandising articles
This is another way to offer free content that will hopefully drive people to whatever site you are directing them to. Submitting articles to online directories will allow you to circulate your content all over the web. It is also a great advantage to have your articles published on sites with very high search engine rankings, such as these directories.
This approach requires an investment of your effort, but your articles may be circulating on the web for quite some time.
presale sites
It is always recommended to set up your own site to drive traffic BEFORE sending it to the main affiliate site. This helps create your own unique sales funnel and also gives you more credibility as a marketer.
A recommendation for your site would be a ‘pre-sales site’ where there are no hard sales attempts directed at the visitor. Your focus here would simply be to tempt or remind visitors of some of the benefits they will receive by purchasing the product on the next page. Hard sales tactics should NOT be used here as the main affiliate page will take care of that for you. You are simply putting the visitor in the buying mood.
review sites
Another effective and recommended way to set up your own website would be to use it as a review site for the product you are promoting. By objectively sharing your experiences and views on the product’s shortcomings and strengths, you can arouse enough curiosity for the visitor to see for themselves. Of course, if your review reflects that the product is a dud, this obviously won’t work, and you probably won’t be promoting it in the first place.
Using any of the 5 techniques we discussed above to promote your affiliate marketing business online should get you started quickly. Remember that the affiliate business opportunity allows you to focus primarily on generating traffic, thereby minimizing your startup costs. With that being said, the key to success here will be your ability to maintain your focus and be patient. Internet marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a business that will take a bit of time to develop for you. If you can maintain focus and resolve, you’ll soon discover why affiliate marketing is considered the best business to start online.