Recently, I have seen so many web sites use affiliate marketing purely by advertising. This includes putting up loads of banners with affiliate links, placing "click here" and "buy this" links everywhere possible, and just expecting people to click through and buy. Wake up and smell the coffee! Chances are you could make a bit of money, but this doesn't even hold a candle to the massive potential earnings you are pretty much throwing away by doing this. Just referring traffic is not what affiliate marketing is all about.
As an affiliate, you are supposed to be someone who is a credible source of information. Someone who can be trusted, and someone who can in turn recommend a product. Without that element of trust, your efforts will not be nearly as successful as they could be. To build credibility, you should first be prepared to give your readers, whether they be visitors to your web site, or subscribers to your mailing list, as much information as possible. Establish yourself as an expert in your field and as someone they can trust.
If you just start right off the bat spamming people with product recommendations, what reason will they have to believe that these are worth their time? Avoid sounding like someone who is just out to make money; people want help, they don't want to be sold to. As you slowly gain your readers trust, you can finally make product recommendations that will be taken seriously. Truth and honesty will score you the biggest points here.
Be sure to outline how a product will directly benefit or help them, in a personable way. Don't be afraid to mention a negative aspect as well if needed, most products aren't perfect and people know that. By doing this, the reader will see your honesty, and will not feel as if you are just selling to them. You really should only promote products that you have really tried and believe in. It only takes one bad recommendation to ruin your credibility. Even if a product has a few flaws, but you still like it, you can always take those flaws and propose solutions or give out missing information to your readers at a later date, which will actually allow you to make more subtle recommendations for the product.
They will want to know what they are missing! Here's a great idea, take the above strategies and build a highly targeted product review web site. Here, you can take your genuine recommendations, and write reviews that are truthful and honest. By doing so, people who are already interested in the product that are looking for reviews can find your site, and this kind of real world recommendation will surely drive them to buy. Making sales this way is about as easy as it gets!.
Author Tim Johnson has been successfully affiliate marketing in a variety of competitive niches. To learn how to create review web sites that can make loads of sales each and every day, check out my Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate review and get started today.
Affiliate Tips