Four Steps to Breaking Out Of The Affiliate Marketing Pack.

If you have been doing affiliate internet marketing for any length of time you've probably run smack dab into the 80/20 rule. In short, it means that 80 percent of affiliate marketers produce 20 percent of the income while the other 20 percent of affiliates generate 80 percent of the income. Needless to say that is a huge gap between the haves and the have nots but it is not hopeless. If you are in the 80 percent crowd, there are things you can do.

1. Your Website or Theirs?

No matter the product or service you are marketing having your own website is a must. This alone is why many affiliates are in the 80 percent group. They send prospective customers right to the main affiliate web site without collecting their name and email address. So what happens when the visitor does not buy the product? Simple, you never see them again. It takes money to make money so invest a few dollars in getting your own website and domain name. Provide good content and offer a free report as an incentive to leave their information. If you can give them a report branded with your personal contact information so much the better. Having your own site is a great way of affiliate selling and building revenue on the web

2. The Automatic Email responder

Why is the money in the list? Backending. After you collect the customer's information, you will be able to contact them over and over again about different products and services. An automatic email responder allows you to send a steady flow of follow up messages at any time interval you choose. This is a very effective tool but be careful. If you just go about pitching products in every message you send out, your customers will quickly grow tired and click the unsubscribe link. Provide free information every now and then minus the sales page. Advertising bombards people whether online or off so try to give them a break once in a while.

3. Your Articles.

Most people only use the tools their internet marketing affiliate program provides and nothing else. Writing your own articles separates you from the pack by showing you are an expert in that particular niche. Once published your articles will be picked up and reprinted by other webmasters, bloggers and ezine publishers. This will not only provide you with a lot of traffic but also increase the one way links to your website. The impact of article marketing on your business can last for years

4. Cover your Tracks

Not that you are doing anything sneaky but there is something about clicking on an affiliate link that makes people hesitant. Maybe it's because affiliate links can be quite long and ugly looking or just the fact that it is obviously an affiliate link does it. Look into finding a way to make the link smaller or better still optimizing your link with a good keyword anchor text.

There are more things you can do to make your internet affiliate program successful but following these steps is a good place to start. By making use of these strategies you will soon be saying goodbye to the eighty and hello to the twenty.