The 3 Ingredients of Affiliate Marketing Success

by Fred Farah What does it take to become a successful Affiliate Marketer? What are the ingredients of an affiliate marketing success story? All these questions challenge the affiliate marketers who want to make it big time. Although affiliate marketing is touted as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it's not as easy as it sounds. The wise affiliate marketer plans every action and executes it the best way he can. He also needs to maximize the potential to earn by utilizing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing business. We have consulted some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the business and below are the top three necessary tools for a successful affiliate marketing business. Important Tool #1: Have Your Own Website The most important and indispensable tool in Affiliate Marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful on line business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. So you must first build a user-friendly website, which will appeal to your prospects and encourage them to click on the links to the products you are promoting. Therefore, you must first concentrate your efforts in building a website that will cater to your prospects' needs. The most important thing you should consider is that almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. Above all else, fill your website with original, relevant and useful content. People love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, on the internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it will also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more trustworthy endorser of the products you promote. Establishing a good reputation is a good step in building up a loyal customer base. Important Tool #2: Offer Lots of Incentives Competition is extremely tight in the internet world. You must always be one-step ahead of your rivals to ensure that you capture a significant share of the market. Therefore, you must use every possible means to encourage people not only to visit your site but also to subscribe to your newsletter. Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to gather prospects. Publish a regular newsletter, an e-zine. Offer incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your newsletters. You can offer free software or ebooks, access to exclusive services and other freebies that will be helpful to your prospects. Important Tool #3: Link Popularity The importance of driving highly targeted traffic to your website cannot be emphasized enough. The all-important web traffic is at the top of the list of the most important entities in the internet world. Attracting people to your site should be your biggest challenge. Do everything to achieve a high search engine ranking. Link Popularity is one of the factors that search engines use to determine search engine rankings. Therefore, to enhance your link popularity, you must launch an aggressive reciprocal link campaign. One of the best ways to do this - at no cost at all - is by submitting articles (with your website's link in the resource box) to e-zines and article submission sites. You'll not only gain exposure, you'll also have the opportunity to advertise for free with the link back to your site. The more sites you submit your articles to, the higher your link popularity becomes. Make your articles original, relevant and useful so that more websites will pick them up. These are but three of the strategies that you can use to maximize your earning potential. The possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and determination. You should also continue to explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become a high rolling affiliate marketer. by Fred Farah copyright 2005