Are You Breaking The Number One Rule of Affiliate Marketing?

If you hang around any traffic exchange long enough, you see it. No matter what product or service is being offered, the vast majority of affiliate marketers are promoting the exact same website provided by whatever merchant they are affiliate advertising. By doing this they are violating the most important rule of affiliate internet marketing:

Not having their own website.

Using the same page as everyone else is the equivalent of betting on the roulette wheel in Vegas. You are hoping that visitors will select your affiliate site from among the other copycats. Depending on how many affiliates are in your particular program the odds will increase against you.

That is not the only problem. By sending people straight to the main affiliate page without capturing their name and contact information, it is a good bet that you will never see them again. That can be a major blow to your affiliate business, especially if you have other products and services to promote which may have been of interest to your visitors.

Yes there are affiliates who have achieved success almost instantly just by sending visitors to the main sales page. This does not apply to the overwhelming majority. Affiliate business like any business requires patience, hard work and various other factors to numerous to mention. But one of the most important ingredients to online success is to get your own website.

So how do you go about creating your affiliate internet marketing website?

1. Decide Beforehand the Affiliate Marketing Program You Want to Promote

Pretty basic right? You would be surprised at how many affiliates do not research their product and target market. Many do not even ask themselves are they really interested in the product or service. Beware of choosing an affiliate program just because it offers a big commission. If you cannot work up any enthusiasm about the product then your visitors will probably feel the same way.

2. Name that Host

Pick an appropriate domain name and title for your website. Do some keyword research using Overture. Now the tendency is to pick the keywords with the highest search results. Avoid this, particularly if you are just launching your affiliate site. High search volume means more competition.

For instance according to the latest Overture results, online dating is searched for 322,178 times per month. But the keyword web dating has only 6,135 searches per month. That means a lot less competition while still having the potential to draw steady web traffic to your affiliate site that can make you a nice profit.

As for your webhost, the requirements should be space (depending on how many affiliate sites you want), customer support, very little downtime and the extension; com, org, net or ws. Get a dot com if possible. Since it is the most prominent, search engines tend to give dot com more weight although some marketers are reporting equally good results using dot org.


3. The Content Easy Site

This is what your affiliate site is all about. Not just a sales page but a content rich site that is easy to navigate. As you learn more about building affiliate sites you can add flash and other media but even then your number one priority will remain site content.

There is plenty of free software that will help you build web pages so you do not have to be an expert. Just start out with a basic design that has clearly readable text and an image of the product or service you are offering. The important thing is to fill your website or blog with tips, articles and news about your niche or related topics. Write as much of your own content as possible (however there is plenty of free information online you can use) and update your site on a regular basis. Turn your affiliate web pages into an authority site.

Make sure when you do build your affiliate site, you have a way to capture your visitors name and contact information. Offer a free ebook or instructional video to entice people. Also give them a promise that you will not spam them or sell their contact information to a third party. Build trust so people will be open to any future offers you may present to them.

No one can guarantee that just by creating your own affiliate site you will be successful. But you can go along way in separating yourself from the pack and exploding your affiliate business by getting your own website now.