Affiliate Marketing Methods

Part 2 of Caroline’s series on Affiliate Marketing. Here’s Part 1 to get you started.

Wanna know what most affiliates do with their web sites to make money as an affiliate marketer? It’s easier than you think! I got all inspired to share this information with you after reading Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day by Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov. Try one of these 5 marketing approaches while promoting your affiliate offer. Successful affiliates rarely stick to one method – here’s to you if you give them all a try!

1. Give CONTENT PUBLISHING a shot!

Think Blogs. Basically, choose the offer you want to promote, then build content (that means helpful information regarding the product), then monetize that helpful information with the affiliate merchant links. Those links are usually in the form of banners, widgets, text links, and video.

2. COUPONING!

We promise it’s more exciting than it sounds – especially for those visiting your “couponing” site. Use this strategy to organize all discounts in one location for your visitors. The better the categorization of the products, the more your success. Popular methods of categorization are holidays, low price mark downs, expiration dates, deal of the day coupons, etc.

3. DATA FEEDS

Affiliates using this method will produce websites that allow users to comparison-shop several merchants for one type of product. The affiliate will pull the product information from a data feed of each merchant to their site. Users of the site are able to price and feature check among several merchants for the same product. That’s an affiliate commission for you, if the user uses the merchant link from your page to make the purchase!

4. EMAIL MARKETING

Do you have a targeted mailing list of individuals who have opted in to receive communication about certain products? If so, and you allow those individuals an option to opt out – then this method may work well for you. Just be extremely careful that the Affiliate Program you join allows for email marketing. There can be serious consequences for spamming of unsolicited commercial emails.

5. USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Affiliates are leveraging social networks, forums, and microblogs for sales (just make sure to comply with the terms and conditions with the form you choose). Some are creative to develop Facebook apps, then monetize them with their affiliate links or tweeting deals on Twitter. Some have even created social shopping engines where users help each other shop – leading to commissions for you. The more innovative you are the more success you may see.

Of course these are not the only methods of promotion for your Affiliate Links, but hopefully you’ve got a better idea how to get started! Now, get out there and make some money!

****Source Shout Out- “Affiliate Program Management: An Hour A Day” by Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov , Chapter 1 Understanding Affiliate Marketing.