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Affiliate Tips and Techniques

Here you will find affiliate tips and techniques for choosing and promoting referral programs. You might also want to check the "Roadmap" in the lefthand column for other information on affiliate programs.

Quality Is Always #1
When assessing affiliate programs do not simply rely on the sales hype provided by the program. Throughly check out the program and the product(s). If possible purchase the product yourself for evaluation. The better the product, the easier it will be to recommended it to others, and the chances of people purchasing the product will be far better as well. Also keep in mind that your reputation is on the line if your promoting products that are of poor quality. Hot Affiliate tip #1 - Beware the hype!

Select Your Target Audience
The first question to be answered is, "who is your target audience?". Once this is established it will be much easier for you to select the products that will sell. Do some research. Find magazines, ezines, forums and websites targeted for this group. Now you know where to focus your advertising efforts.

Find Your Niche
Choose a topic that is of great interest to you and build your website around that theme. You will be far more passionate in your content writing and far more believable in your marketing if you really care about your topic. Learn all you can about your chosen topic - become an expert. This will provide name recognition, credibility, and make selling the products you choose easier. Hot Affiliate Tip #2 - If you enjoy your topic, running your business will also be fun - and in the end more profitable!

Get Your Own Domain Name
You can promote affiliate programs from a free site, but free sites are easy to detect, and you won't be taken seriously. If you are serious about building a business you need your own domain name and website. To build credibility, name recognition, repeat traffic and n overall professional appearance you really do need your own domain name. ( Doteasy.com -great web hosting service. They are the leading cost-free, banner-free business hosting network).

Sell High Demand Products
Selling things that people want is an easy way to get those dollars rolling in. Information products are number one. Digital products are in great demand and often provide high commissions. Bargains always get customers excited. A hot affiliate tip: Quickly jumping on new products or the latest fads can provide good rewards.

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic!
Building traffic to your website is the name of the game. If you have a targeted audience, you will need about 500 unique visitors a day to make reasonable money. The best thing you can do to bring in lots of traffic is to provide good content and build trust and credibility with your customers. Hot Affiliate tip #3 - The best information I have found on this subject are listed Website & Business Promoting Tips & Researches, Surveys, News & Articles sections.

Residual Income
Finding affiliate programs that provide residual income will provide an ongoing income for as long as a customer continues using a service or membership site. One sale can provide income for several months or years. You can find quality residual income programs from this listing.

Lifetime Commissions
As with residual income, programs that have lifetime commissions will provide commissions long after the initial sale. If one of "your" customers buys another product, even years later, you will receive the commission. You can find some good programs with lifetime commsions here

Increase Sales With Personal Endorsements
An excellent way to promote products is by writing a personal endorsement. The best way to do this is to purchase the product and write an honest review. Don't be afraid to point out slight flaws in the product either. If the product is a good one (and you shouldn't promote it if it isn't) pointing out small deficiencies will not detract from the salability, but rather show that you are making an honest evaluation.

Just Say No To Spam
The worst way to promote a product is using bulk, unsolicited email (Spam). Reputable programs do not permit their affiliates to use spam, so you may forfiet any commissions you have earned, and could even be billed for damages. You can lose your internet connection and ruin your hard earned reputation. Hot Affiliate Tip #4 - Just Say No!

Banners or Content?
Using banners is the easiest, most popular and the least effective way to promote affiliate programs. Content is still king! Write endorsements, offer helpful advice, provide useful content - be creative!

Choose Wisely
Look for quality affiliate programs that provide useful information, sales tools and tips, articles and newsletters. They are the product experts and can provide you with promotional ideas, product information and the like that you ordinarily wouldn't know. Many provide samples of emails, articles, reviews that you can change and customize for yourself. You can find some excellent programs here.

Your Own Newsletter
A newsletter is a must have for any Internet business today. It is by far one of the best promotional tools you can use. It will assist in name recognition, is a superb promotional tool and a great money making tool. Most successful marketers place a lot of importance on their opt-in lists as a way to make repeat sales.

How To Hide Your Affiliate Links
Commissions are lost daily because people do not like to click on affiliate links. To disguise your links simply cut and paste this code into your affiliate links:

a href="Your Affiliate URL here" onmouseover="window.status='Start Your Very Own eBook Today!';return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return true;" Program Name Here

Make eMail AOL User Friendly
There are approximately 34 million AOL users out there. The chances that some of them subscribe to your newsletter are pretty high, so why not provide two URL formats! Just cut and paste this code (and insert your information) to your text emails:

AOL users
http://www.XXXXXX.com
click here

Signature Files
A great way to promote affiliate programs is by using a "Sig File". This is the space below your eMail address. The sig file shouldn't be a long advertisement, simple a line of advertising the name of the program and the URL. Here is an example:

Don't just build a website - Build a Business

Site Build It!
http://www.sitebuildit.com/YourAffiliateNoHere.html

Hot Affiliate Tip #5: Go to http://www.tinyurl.com and get a url for your affiliate program that is inrecognizable as an affiliate link.

Sticky Notes Instead of Pop-Ups
Instead of using Pop-Ups, use Sticky Notes. They are not as annoying to customers and are not affected by Pop-up Blockers. You can customize the script as to how often it should appear on the page, for how long, and whether a fade-in affect should be used. Click here to pick up and customize this JavaScript. It is really a lot more customer friendly than Pop-Ups.