In this post I’ll address the steps to take if you are new to affiliate marketing. Follow these simple steps and you can begin to profit from affiliate marketing on the internet.
First things first. You will need a Clickbank account and a Google Adsense and Google Adwords account.
Sign up for a free account to sell products from the ClickBank Marketplace.
GO HERE to sign up for Google Adsense
and
GO HERE to sign up for Google Adwords.
1. Research: Your research is the most important step in finding the proper product to promote. You will save time and money if you do it right. Finding a the right niche, the right product, is the and most significant component to achieving success. Don’t be afraid of competition. If a product has competition it means that there’s money in that niche. Find a niche that you are interested in. Then find products on Clickbank in that niche that you want to promote.
After your niche research you will want to do some keyword research. Start by grabbing some relevant keywords by using Google’s own keyword tool. Choosing the second option - “Website Content” on the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, you can typein the domain of the product you are promoting and it will generate relevant keywords for you.
Then you can take a few of those and plug them back in with the radio button for the first option checked descriptive words or phrases and it will expand your keyword lists some more. You can then download the list as a Txt file or CSV. Also use some of the other Keyword Research tools provided in this blog at top of the page.
2. Domain and Hosting. Once you have decided on a niche and researched some relevant keywords, you should invest in a relevant domain name and hosting for your website. For me I use BlueHost which gives you the domain name free with the very affordable hosting package. Plus they have all the tools you need to get your website up and running in a professional manner. When choosing your domain name it is a good idea to use a relavant keyword in the name.
3. Your website Landing Page: Create a website with a simple review of the product you are promoting. Use a headline that grabs attention and use your keywords within the copy of the page. Be sure to make it natural and interesting. Keywords repeated over and over in text that doesn’t make sense will not only get you slapped by Google, but won’t make any sales defeating the whole purpose. Also, be sure to cloak your affiliate links on your landing page as it will improve your conversions.
4. Addition Income: Set up your Adsense ads within your website. Go to Adsense and determine the size and colors you want to use then get the code and insert it into your website html.
5. Promotion: Using Adwords is easy. Log into your Adwords account, use the keywords from your research, plug them in and tweak the settings. Choose a low daily budget to start off with, but set the max cpc to the price that is higher then what google recommends to obtain the highest ad spots. You want to be in the proven hot spots which are spots 1 through 3. You can gradually decrease your bid over time while maintaining a high CTR.
After you ad has run a few days keep tweaking and refining your campaign to make it convert higher. You can lower your ad spend and get the maximum amount of traffic possible for the keywords that are converting.
6. Take advantage of Google Analytics. Get the code and place it on your site. It will help determine which keywords are converting to sales.
7. Article/blog/squidoo submissions: Use these for additional promotion by including your keywords in your article title, in your first few paragraphs, and in variations throughout your article. But don’t use all of them, use a maximum of 5-10. You can write 10 articles, and focus every 2 articles around a different group of keywords. Always put a link to your website in the author box with an engaging call to action.
Here is a list of places to submit articles:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://www.isyndicate.com/
http://www.goarticles.com/
http://www.ezinehits.com/ad-rates.htm
http://www.marketingtrendz.com/advertising.htm
http://www.flashyads.com/advertise.html
http://www.unimaxmarketing.com/powerpak.html
http://www.thegurumarketer.com/
http://www.rimdigest.com/ads.html
http://bizbarrel.netfirms.com/adrates.html
http://www.superpromo.com/optadorder.html
http://www.ProBizTips.com/advertising.html
Forums are also a great way to promote your website or affiliate links in your signature link. When you sign up to a forum, go to your profile and account sections to create a signature link. Remember, NEVER spam the forums. Make relevant posts in the forum and you will be more respected and get more clicks on your signature link. Forum ethics are important, you want to build a good rep and never ever just spam a product. Post to popular topics, and respond to the busiest posts every day.
Start a BLOG on your subject and include links to your affiliate website or product. You can get a blog for free and the search engines love them.
Squidoo is another excellent resource and you might even get addicted. Use Squidoo to write about your affiliate product and include links.
Good Luck!
Tags: affiliate marketing, getting started in affiliate marketing, product promotion

