Affiliate marketing is lots of fun, and very easy to do. Unfortunately, many people give up on it before they have measurable success. If you’ve given up, or want to, realize that you can make great money as an affiliate marketer — all it takes is a little knowledge and skill.
Here’s a formula which works for any product you want to promote: CONTENT + TRAFFIC = SALES.
So start with content on a blog, or on any site, but be aware that outright high-pressure sales tactics don’t usually work.
Here’s how to promote your products.
1. Use Social Networking Sites to Publicize Blog Posts
Social networking sites are very useful as promotional tools for your blog posts. Whenever you make a post, take the time to promote it on one of the social networking sites. Popular sites you can use include Twitter and Facebook.
Remember that these sites are all about social interaction. So when somebody contacts you, take the time to respond to them: you never know when someone will turn out to be a potential partner for you, and besides, it’s fun.
2. Use Free Classifieds Sites — Target the Benefits
There are many free classified sites online, with the largest being Craigslist. However be aware that you shouldn’t spam these sites. You can use them as an affiliate marketer, however use common sense too. Each ad you post should be genuine, and it should offer the benefits of your products.
Not only should each ad you post be genuine, it should also be different from any other ad that you post on that site or on any other classifieds site. People get in trouble with the classifieds site because they want to spam these sites. Don’t do it.
3. Create Short Reports to Give Away
Several years ago you could build an e-mail list very easily. These days it’s much more difficult, people don’t want to give up their e-mail addresses because they’re worried about spam. This means that many people subscribe to e-mail lists with throwaway addresses: when you contact them again, the message is bounced.
However e-mail lists are still a great way to promote products. Ensure that every e-mail list you create has a double opt-in process so that the people have to confirm that their e-mail address is genuine before they get your freebie.