Here are few tips to help you started with affiliate marketing.

If you already up and running this direction – you might get a few gems out of this article.

• Good idea is not necessarily a good business!
  Test the market before investing lots of time and money to create a product. To test the market:
  • Open Google Adwords account
  • Sign up for affiliate programs at ClickBank or Commission Junction programs for free.
  • Find existing products that targets the same (or closely related markets) to the product/service that you are planning to create.
  • Create simple landing page on your website promoting existing affiliate product or service. Alternatively, instead of trying to sell anything you can send visitors to fill-in your online survey about their needs and wants or simply offer them page full of useful information + ability to opt-in to receive more information. Aweber has all tools to manage your email and opt-in needs. Once people opted in – you will be able to market them your or other products repeatedly without paying anything to Google.
  • Spend $50 – $100 worth on Adwords sending targeted traffic to your landing page.
  • See how many visitors you got and how many converted to buyers/customers. If after spending $100 on ads you won’t get any customers – this might not be a good niche. This also could mean that approach to convert visitors to buyers might need to be changed.
• If you create a useful (or so you think) informational product that no one seems to buy – offer it at no charge, but through an opt-in box on your site. This way you will grow database of people who are interested in this market and later on you can offer them other affiliate products and make your money worth and more.
• When sending emails to your opt-in list approach them like a friend, not like salesman. This could increase trust and conversions.
• Offering something cheaper than your competitors not necessarily will make you more successful. Opposite quite often is true – clever, innovative, agressive marketing with high price tag product could work wonders in the right niches.
• Video sales letters converts better than regular online text salesletters.
• Use competitive intelligence to help your business. Spy on your competition or other successful affiliate marketers with DomainTools. Domain tools paid account ($15/mo, $149/yr) allows you to list all domains hosted under same IP address. So if you know website name of successful affiliate marketer – you can see what other “cards he has under his sleeve” by peeking at his other domains. TIP: Alternatively you may use live.com query to find all domain under IP address, type this at live.com search box: ip:123.45.6.78
• Some internet marketing gurus are raving about Spyfu.com service using which you can spy on other websites (presumably your competitors), see what keywords they are bidding on and what their daily ad budget. I checked their site against domains that I personally manage and have to say this:
  – They don’t get even close to the daily budget I am spending on Adwords. That’s understandable – only Google knows that – they obviously has no and cannot have any clue about it. This factor may or may not be important for your needs.
  – They do report organic rankings ok – anyone could get this just by Googling.
  – They do report pay per click competitors ok – same – anyone could get this just by Googling.
  – They does not report our most moneymaking keywords, although I don’t have paid account with them and haven’t seen all keywords that they could report.
  – They doing great job marketing their service! Something we all can learn from.
• If you use Aweber to market to your list – do not leave “thank you” page as it’s default. You’re leaving money on the table. “Thank you” page could redirect opted-in visitor to another sales letter and/or be as simple as affiliate link itself for relevant products.
• “Old” domain names are as good as old quality aged wine. If you own one or could afford to purchase one (especially rather generically looking name) – this will definitely help to quickly gain trust at Google, compare to brand new registered domains.
• Every portal must have privacy policy, contact us and about us page. This is useful for visitors and good for search engines to see that you’re serious to do online business up to standards. Having sitemap is a must for quicker indexing and ranking. Having separate link to sitemap from your main page is a good idea.
• Do you have the list? How often do you mail them? Marketing experts suggest to create at least 52 separate email messages (you may outsource their creation to rentacoder, elance or other outsourcing places). If you have account with Aweber or other email marketing service – upload these messages over there and let your messages to be sent to your list at least once a week. This way you’ll be set for the whole year, without touching anything else. Of course, if you discovered new product or service within affiliate space that is worth promoting to your list – just create one extra message and send it out to your list. Other 52 – will keep your list “in touch” with your business year round and will be your automated generator of residual income.

Good luck with your online ventures!