Affiliate Marketing Tip #2

                                           Be Trustworthy & Helpful

Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don’t believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.

It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you link-backs, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.

If your visitors don’t think you’re being honest, they won’t read anything else you have to say.

Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content. Give value to your content by making it helpful, useful, and informative.

Don’t just put up a list of your links, books or whatever, hoping people will click on the affiliate link, purchase the offer (just because you listed them), so you can cash in on a sale. Take some time to write a detailed review or better yet, buy, use or subscribe to the product or offer and then use affiliate ads/links to point them in the right direction.

If you’ve actually tried the product or service and can attest to it’s effectiveness, then by all means promote them. That’s what affiliate ads are for.

For example, if you write a great review recommending a book or purchase/subscribe to a product and readers buy the book or subscribe to the product/service because of it, you should get something for that.

But just throwing out links to products and services with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by visitors.

Affiliate Marketing Tip #1

Know Your Audience

The most successful way to use affiliate programs is to anticipate and meet the needs of your readers. Consider why they are coming to your site. What are you providing that they are looking for? Make sure the affiliate products you are promoting provide a solution to your audience’s problems.

If you are writing about sports, don’t put up affiliate ads for printer toner just because everyone has a printer and those programs have a high payout. The people who are coming to read commentary or get stats for their favorite teams aren’t thinking about those things when they’re on your site.

The more relevant the ads are to your readers, the more likely they will use them.

Be Trustworthy

Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don’t believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.

It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you link-backs, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.

If your visitors don’t think you’re being honest, they won’t read anything else you have to say.