Creating an online affiliate marketing system which produces
a monthly income is relatively easy. With one catch, you
have to know exactly what you’re doing and how the whole
online marketing system works. Figuring out all the details
can take you years to learn.

What the beginning webmaster or marketer doesn’t realize
building a solid online business takes time and patience.
It is not done overnight, despite what the latest marketing
gurus are trying to sell you, it simply takes time and
a lot of hard work to build a solid online business.

First, you must have a basic understanding of how the
Internet works and the future role you will play in it.
You must understand the net is basically an extension
of the real world: it is an enormous virtual playground
as well as a vast storehouse of the world’s collective
knowledge. But you must also understand the web is a
global marketplace unlike anything that has been seen
before on this planet.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer you must place
yourself or your site into this whole online environment.
As an affiliate marketer you must play some sort of role
in the transfer of information within this complex structure.

How?

Simply give surfers what they’re looking for: information.

Supplying valuable, needed information is your key to
online affiliate success.

Here are some proven affiliate marketing strategies or tips
to get you started on your affiliate marketing career. Each
is a brief summation of some of the factors to keep in mind
as you create your own complex, yet simple, online marketing
system.

1. Acquiring Knowledge

Your first step is to acquire the basic skills and
knowledge needed to run an online site or business.
When I started I had to learn how to write HTML from
scratch and go from there… today there are many online
site builders and WYSIWYG editors to get you started.
Plus, you now have whole online site building systems
you can use, Ken Evoy’s SBI comes readily to mind.

No matter which route you follow, you must understand how
an online site works, how to use keywords, how to create
valuable content and how to tie in your affiliate links
with this content… all this basic knowledge you must
acquire.

2. Get The Big Picture: Your Role – Your Content

You must fully understand your role in the whole
online affiliate marketing process. Your content
must be valuable to the Internet user, it must
offer information, solve a problem or offer a
special deal. There must be some reason why the
surfer will use your site to find what they’re
looking for on the web. They must benefit in some
way from using your site.

Again, offering valuable, helpful information will
spell online affiliate success for you.

3. Build Your Foundation

You must have your own domain or domains. You must
create your own piece of virtual real estate that
you can build and gradually add to as you proceed.
Be wary of free sites. Don’t rent, own your real
estate outright. Your sites will become your valuable
properties you will continue to build for years
to come.

When picking a domain name try to get as close as you
can to the main keyword or keyword phrase represented
by your site’s topic. Use hyphens if you have to but
choose a name that is short and can be easily remembered
and typed directly into a browser.

As for site design and layout — a simple solution
is to use a blog format such as the free WordPress
software and host it on your own domain. Extremely
effective way of creating a full-powered content site
without having to worry about learning HTML code or
programing. You can have a website up and running
within minutes.

4. Know Your Partners & Their Products

As an affiliate marketer you will be selling other
people’s stuff. You must get to know these future
partners and their marketing systems. Pick affiliate
products directly related to the topic of your site.
Something your visitors are interested in and would
likely purchase after you have supplied them with
valuable information about those products.

A good way to find potential products and partners is
to join the well established major affiliate networks
on the web. These networks represents most of the Top 500
Companies in the world. Affiliate networks like Commission
Junction, LinkShare, Amazon, ClickBank, Shareasale…
these networks have been around for years and offer
excellent payment structures and commission rates.

5. Long Tail Keyword Marketing

Develop content and high rankings for long tail keyword
phrases related to your site’s topic. These are some of
the least competitive keywords yet they will also prove
to be the most lucrative for you. Find the long tail
keywords within your niche and exploit them. Using exact
brand names of the affiliate products you’re promoting
make for effective long tail keywords.

Consistently use and develop this long tail keyword
strategy and you will succeed at affiliate marketing.

6. Build Your One-Way Links

Take a pro-active approach to link building. Don’t sit
around waiting for links, instead go out and get them.
Use your keyword anchor links in the resource box of your
articles. Distribute these articles to all the major
article directories… make sure EzineArticles.com,
Goarticles.com, ArticleAlley.com… are on your list.

Recommend products that you use, make forum posts,
create viral videos, join social media sites, offer
a free newsletter and build your own subscriber base,
create follow-up autoresponder series on the major
products you promote… these are all ways of creating
traffic and customers.

7. Embrace Google But Don’t Ignore the Others

Embrace Google as if your affiliate marketing life
depended on it — chances are it will be!

Google is the search engine that you must optimize for
if you want your site to really succeed online. Don’t
ignore the others, but Google has become the most
popular search engine in the world and even accounts
for 50% of all the searches made in the USA. (comScore)

So short of a brown-nose, do everything you can to please
Google. The rewards are worth it. Whether you’re a Google
fan or not, Google has gained the trust and respect of
the majority of Internet users. Getting a top 10 placement
for your targeted keywords will often mean money in the bank.

8. Be Aware Of The Social Media Revolution

Be aware the Internet is constantly changing and in the
next few years everything will be turned topsy-turvy. We
are talking about the growing popularity of user-generated
content sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Digg,
Technorati…

Stay within the flow by making sure any site you create
has a blog and RSS feed attached to it. Make sure all
your content can be easily bookmarked in all these
different social bookmarking sites. One simple solution
is to use the easy bookmarking system supplied by
Addthis.com, place their code on your content pages
and let your visitors bookmark your content for you
in all these different media sites.

9. Model It

In art one of the best ways to learn is to model
or copy the masters. You learn by seeing how
someone else has approached and solved a problem
and then use their model or example. In affiliate
marketing, one of the best ways to learn is to
copy or model your business on one that has already
been proven to work.

This is NOT literal copying of a site or business
but simply modeling your own business on an existing
example that works. Same structure, same marketing
techniques, same principles… building your affiliate
business on an existing mold or model is a wise
route to take if you want to succeed.

10. Be Patient For Results

Building a viable online affiliate business takes some
time so be patient. If you’re building a content rich
site and targeting specific keywords it can take months,
sometimes even years, before you obtain significant
results. So have long term goals in place and expect
plenty of hard work before you reap the real rewards.

Just remember becoming a full time online affiliate
marketer is well within anyone’s reach. However, like
most things in life, the journey is always much more
enjoyable than your final destination. Many of you will
probably discover, like I did, that ‘the reach is the
grasp’. Actually doing something is the main reward,
all those monthly affiliate checks are just pleasant
aftershocks. Very nice aftershocks that add up very
quickly into a healthy monthly online income!

Social networking is an effective method for website promotion.  By using social networking websites webmasters are able to bring unique targeted traffic to their own websites.

What is Social Media?

Social media consists of websites where like-minded people research and find their own fields of interest.  As these websites connect users with their peers, users tend to take the recommendations of their friends and family more seriously than that of an anonymous source.

How to Boost Website Traffic with Social Marketing

The way that social bookmarking and networking is used is very simple.  Users find a web page or site that they like and publish it on the social bookmarking site that they prefer to use.  It is then there for their friends, family and other interested users to look at.

Webmasters can also add their own sites to social networks.  Although this is generally frowned upon by the communities of these sites, it can be done.  The trick here is to provide links to content that will be interesting or valuable to users.  Webmasters that simply post spam like links to products they are selling will not be taken seriously.

One of the benefits of using this type of site for promotion is the speed in which visitors are clicking links to the website that is listed.  If the website in question is interesting, it can get thousands of unique hits in one day.

This is a wonderfully effective way that webmasters can use to promote their websites, give out information and get interested buyers for their product or service.  It is a fast and effective tool to use to get additional targeted traffic.  The biggest benefit of using these sites is that they are free.  Webmasters can save hundreds of dollars on advertising by simply using bookmarking and networking sites.

I have been involved in Network Marketing for about 10 years now. I have had pretty good success but I found myself wanting more, more, more. After all, who doesn’t enjoy getting up whenever you want, going where ever you want and being the master of your own time. No one puts time restrictions on me and I love that!

I have read every self help book, written & rewritten my prospecting list, ran through my memory jogger again & again, attacked my warm market, called leads, followed the 3 foot rule, did 3 ways, duplication (make it simple), watched webinars, did thousands of conference calls and so on. Sound familiar? I was what you would call, a traditional network marketer. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the old system and it still works today for many people including myself. I still prospect the traditional way, that will never leave me but, I have added an additional prospecting tool…the internet. Here is how that happened:

I had begun to get stale with the old style prospecting and started my search for new ways to reach large groups of people. After all, I had become one of the most well versed people in my company about my products & leadership but, I needed to be able to share that with the masses.

I met with a local Chamber of Commerce group called SCORE. SCORE is a group of retired business people that were/are highly successful with their ventures. They take a look at what you are doing and they give you ideas on how to achieve the next level of success. Weirdly enough, I was the very first network marketer that they had counseled with. Even so, they really dug in and came back with a smart business plan for me.

They told me that I needed to position myself as an expert in my field, someone that people wanted to feature at meetings or on websites etc. That would be easy enough…I had giant knowledge on my product, I love to get in front of a group of people and I had become a leader that people respected. They told me that as I was positioning myself as an expert in my field I needed to begin Social Networking. I was unaware of that term at the time but soon after that I began to read about it everywhere. They mentioned that I needed to get very familiar with social websites like MySpace & Facebook. I needed to learn their rules and begin networking…as an expert…on those sites offering more than just my product, there are millions doing that. I needed to offer them something different than all of the others, an experts view with useful information. Attraction marketing, attracting prospects to your expertise and/or useful information.

Wow, I was excited! I was going to go right out and get myself in front of the masses…right? Hold up, not as easy as it sounds without connecting with someone who really knows about exactly how to do it. Time went on, I searched all over the internet for information on how to begin my quest at Social Networking. Luckily I found Ann Sieg’s 7, Great Lies of Network Marketing, which lead me to a couple of e-books that I bought that were exactly what SCORE had been talking about, how to get into the social network. I read both of them front to back, highlighted, turned pages down, underlined and basically destroyed the books. I was even more excited now, there were so many ways to do social networking, I was going to be an overnight success.

As I began my research on a few of the avenues, I became highly overwhelmed, there was so much to know! So much that I sat back and said…if I, of all people, am having trouble absorbing this and even knowing where to begin…how in the world am I going to get my team members to duplicate? Roadblock!! Or, so I thought. All I needed to do was learn all of it and then put it in a simplified version to all of my interested team members, right?

Many late nights of studying this type of marketing for prospects continued to solidify in my mind, this IS going to be the way to go, I must learn. I just need the right coach…someone who has positioned themselves as an expert on this info. I am going to become the expert in my field but to do that I needed the help of an expert in another field…makes sense. Just what the SCORE group said, I was beginning to believe that they actually knew what they were talking about. Wow, good advice for free, how uncommon.

There was a ton of information in the e-books I had ordered and the companies that I bought them from followed up with great emails about Social Networking. I was jumping all over the place trying to compile as much info as I could when BINGO…there it was!

A Social Marketing University, right there in one of my books. A University that I could join for only $40 a month that would teach me everything I needed to know, and in the order I needed to know it. They basically took my hand and guided me like I was a kindergartner through all of the different avenues I could use to market. They walked me through a step by step tutorial on setting up anything I was going to need to become successful at this. They also hooked me up with the right resources (priceless) that I would be using, and they taught me how to do all of this at a very minimal cost to me…most of it is free. They even taught me how to make money with some of these sites while I was prospecting so I could recover some of the costs I would incur, including the $40 monthly membership…this is called monetization, very powerful. Thank You Ann Sieg for leading me there!

Yes, it was time consuming to go through all of the modules but, when I think of the time & money I saved myself by letting them guide me through it…I am amazed. (not to mention I probably would have gotten too bogged down with my research before I succeeded, and put it on the back burner).

They set me up to succeed, which is exactly what I am doing. With my knowledge I can market how ever I want. I can market my product, my self and my opportunity all in a way that people come to me for these things. The days of talking someone in to joining my team are over! I have people that want to join my team that don’t even know what my product is. The University taught me that too. Like I said, a priceless tool.

Social Marketing is just the answer I was looking for, SCORE told me that for free and now I am doing the same, sharing good information! Nothing comes without some work but, the effort you put in up front with this program will certainly pay for itself over and over again. I love this quote…it makes all kinds of sense: If you get a chance, take it! If it changes your life, let it! No one ever said this would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.