Wondering how you can optimize your affiliate business? Are you just getting started? Don’t worry we’ve done some of the messy work for you and broken down the process of becoming an Affiliate from A to Z.
Successful affiliate marketing takes dedication and consistency. A few years back you could get away with much simpler strategies; buying ads on services such as Google AdWords in order to drive traffic through your affiliate links. While this method has been effective for some time now, the field is becoming more and more competitive; making the process a little more complex than it used to be.
#1 Domain and Website
If you don’t already have one you need a medium from which you will deliver information. Creating a responsive website is easier than ever nowadays as you can do it yourself, online without even knowing the slightest thing about coding. Find a quality domain registrar and get yourself something short and catchy!
Another absolute essential you need as an affiliate is properly optimized web-hosting. This will improve your website’s loading time. The devil is in the details and better loading time means better SEO and of course a breezy user-experience. Google Index favors speed, not to mention proper web-hosting optimization keeps your website secure and will save you a lot of that precious time in site management. Think of it as an i3 Vs an i7 laptop. They can both run the same programs but the i7 runs them a lot faster. In the exact same way, a properly optimized web-hosting will generally always outperform unoptimized web-hosting.
There is so much software out there to help you create the webpage you want. WordPress is one and it is growing in popularity every day due to its universality and customizability. This content management and blogging software is used by 26.6% of websites worldwide. The next biggest competitor is Joomla which holds a mere 2.8% of the market. The best thing about WordPress is that you can get started with it free of charge so, like I said, creating a responsive website has never been easier, even for people without a techy background.
#2 WordPress Basics
Simply a great product. Intuitive, flexible, and most of all, powerful in its performance. Developing and managing a website or webpage is an art and a science that has evolved very quickly all thanks to user-friendly software just like WordPress. Let’s take a small tour through your WordPress website and how you can make it your own. You’ll first have to log in to the back-end of your website or the ‘admin area.’ To do that just type wp-admin or wp-login after your domain’s name. Now you can log in to the back-end of your website with your username and password.
Ta-da, you’re on the dashboard, where all the magic happens – where you can let your creativity explode. From writing your own addictive content to designing the utmost user-experience. It’s also where the organization and management of your website begin, so if you’re anything like me and want to get down and dirty you’ll be spending plenty of time playing around. A preferred framework is Genesis which works very well with the child-theme Dynamik. To that, you can add Beaver-Builder which is a visual builder that can help you create very high-quality webpages or websites without having to do any coding.
#3 Conversion Tools
Site Theme & Landing Page Builder: This is the design and conversion part of the affiliate operation. It’s one of the best tools you can use to attract and convert traffic. You’ll want to find a provider with access to themes optimized for your targets, lead generation plugins, and a landing page creator to manage your user funnels. In other words, design pages and campaigns around making a visitor into a lead and then ultimately, into a client.
Email Marketing: No affiliate marketer is complete without an effective email marketing strategy. You may not know this, but email marketing is known as the best digital marketing channel when thinking about Return on Investment (RoI). The best thing about it is the rapport you create with your clients is completely in your control and not left at the hands of social media or ‘digital destiny.’
You’ll need to get yourself a tool for sending emails to generate leads and track who’s interested and who’s not. Who should stay on the list and who should not. The ideal plugin should offer you the ability to display targeted offers based on categories, custom opt-in forms and provide an in-depth report with actionable points. In your search choose companies that have an affiliate-friendly approach.
A good way to start would be to do a series of emails to establish the first point of contact. Many marketers do what we call ‘split-testing.’ (every marketer should be doing this) Divide your list into two or even three parts either by gender age or occupation (whatever information is available to you) and depending on their background or social status compose an email you think would most interest people of that group. Send your separate emails to your separate groups and let the results guide you to your money. Whatever works, works, and just build on that. Always optimize according to your results and what your audience wants.
#4 Market Research
SEO & Competitor Research: Market research is often overlooked and wrongfully so as it often draws the line between profitable affiliates and – the not so profitable ones. Having a website is not enough you need to able to spot the right opportunities. There are plenty of services that provide you with SEO tools you should be using to find the strengths of your competitors, analyze keywords, and spot link opportunities. Through this process, you can get a lot of inspiration for new ways to enter the market of your niche.
#5 Buying Traffic
There’s a lot of respect for generating an organic reach but it costs money to get the exposure to be able to reach users organically and be an authoritative source. It’s in your best interest to create campaigns and find a provider from which you can buy traffic. The higher your number the more chances a lead will convert with you organically.
#6 Tacking and Converting
Keeping track of the performance of your campaigns is the final ingredient needed for a successful affiliate marketing recipe. As I’ve said in one of my previous articles if you’re not tracking you’re not making money. Without strong tracking abilities, you will never know what’s working for you and what’s not and you will consistently create holes in your pocket. You’ll never fully understand your audience and it’s like having a friend that doesn’t want to hear what you have to say.
Click Tracking & Link Management: Click tracking is a method in which you can track the when the where and the how of people clicking your links. Link management is essential for creating links that divert traffic based on your target audience with precision and optimization. If you manage to stay organized you will save yourself a lot of time and money.
So, there you have it, a brief overview of the kind of work required to being a successful affiliate marketer. Reap the tools provided by the modern age we live in and work more-smart and not SO hard. By following through with the essentials for successful affiliate marketing, you will not only convert your time into money but you will reach a point where much more money will require much less effort. Until next time.
