Have you chosen your own affiliate program and are ready to start marketing your affiliate program on the internet? As with any affiliate program, traffic is the key to landing those clicks or sales you are looking for, but they might not always come as quick and easy as you thought. If you are interested in learning some great tips on affiliate internet marketing, then please read this entire article for great free information.
Marketing Tips For Affiliate Programs
Marketing an internet affiliate program is like driving a car: there is a correct and and incorrect way to do it. Get it wrong and the gears will grind, the engine will rake and you will end up back at the garage quicker than you left. Get it right and you can have years of trouble free pleasure.
The first thing to do is submit your internet affiliate to the major search engines such a Google and Findwhat. There are hundreds of sites out there who offer search engine submission services. Many of these companies offer a ‘free’ and ‘paid’ service. The paid service sends your website info to hundreds or thousands of search engines for a monthly or yearly fee. The free service sends your site’s info to ten or so of the biggest and best search engines out there including Google. It may take several weeks for your site to appear in the relevant search engine listings.
The next thing to do is to submit your internet affiliate information to relevant free web directories. If you own a dating affiliate, look for online dating directories. If you own a bookstore affiliate, look for online bookstore directories. Use the directory’s automatic submission tool to submit your site’s info to their directory. Again this could take time. Unless you have deep pockets, don’t buy a paid directory listing in the Yahoo Directory. The cost of listing is high and the returns are not worth it.
The best, and most cost effective, means of marketing any internet affiliate is to use a Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine service such as Google Adwords, Overture, Go Click etc. If you look down the right hand side of any Google search page you will see several listed ads for sites relevant by keyword to the search just made. The ads may also appear above the normal search listings on other PPC search engines.
These are the advertised listings, advertised through Google Adwords or Overture etc. Different PPC search engines cost different amounts to set up, require different amounts of cash to be placed in your balance to keep your account active and are aimed at different markets. Adwords, for example, is free to set up, costs a minimum of 5 cents per click to run, and you are billed automatically at the end of the month . Overture costs $50 to set up, requires a minimum of 10 cents per click and at least needs $25 to be in your account to keep it going.
Most PPc search engines work identically. You set up an account, write an ad, select your keywords which will bring up your ad and set the maximum cost per click for each keyword. The higher your minimum cost per click the higher up the search rankings your ad will be and the more click-thrus your ad will receive.
Bidding for keywords can be an expensive and cut throat business, especially when bidding on highly popular ones such as ‘cars,’ ‘mortgages’ or ‘dating.’ Unless you have bottomless pockets its best to use your head. Bid lower on these high cost words and bid also on alternative keywords such as ‘lonely hearts dating.’ Keep a close eye on your listings, especially the click-thru rate and the cost that your campaign is accruing. You might have to adjust your keyword costs to ensure a productive campaign. You can pause or end a campaign at any time, which almost instantly takes your ad out of the listings.
Don’t waste your money and energy advertising with the hundreds of smaller PPC search engines out there. Many of these smaller sites offer free sign up and you can bid on keywords from 1 cents per click. Some even post money into your balance on joining. The amount of traffic these search engines receive is virtually non-existent and it could take you literally years to use up your click balance. If a PPC search engine is not listed in the top ten avoid it! How do you find out? Easy! Type ‘top ten PPC search engines’ into Google.
If you own an affiliate website that looks identical to the site from which you took out that affiliate, it may be worth checking with the original site itself because some don’t like you advertising your affiliate as if it is the real thing itself. You can check to see if you are a clone affiliate by looking at the address bar at the top of the your affiliate homepage. If you are a clone bookstore affiliate you will normally see something like: www.bookstoreaffilaites.com/123. That 123 at the end contains your affiliate number. In some cases you may have to include the word ‘Affiliate’ somewhere in your ad copy.
In this era of dynamic advertising and marketing, many people are turning to more unusual methods to advertise there affiliate. Here are a few more original ways that have proved a success: print and hand out business cards, take out free or cheap classified ads, make posts on forums relevant to your affiliate and, make sure your website address or affiliate is listed in your profile.
Whatever you do, don’t use any kind of spam or email sending service. These are not only illegal but they are likely to end up with disgruntled spam receivers complaining to your ISP and getting you kicked out. Avoid too these site who offer to send your advertisement to 30 million email addresses for $10. If it sounds too good to be true it is!