Affiliate Marketing Domination - Winning The Affiliate Wars!

©2008 Doug Champigny. All Rights Reserved.

Dominating affiliate marketing and becoming a super affiliate isn’t easy - it’s a real jungle out there in the affiliate marketing wars. Every other affiliate is also trying to make the sale - of the same product!

Since we were old enough to go to school, we’ve been pressured to fit in and be like everybody else. But now it’s time to venture out into new territory, be different and learn to be a winning competitor if you hope to succeed in affiliate marketing.

Unless you’re a true Type A personality, this means some radical changes for you - no longer worrying about fitting in, being ok with making people jealous of you, ignoring those who talk behind your back - all necessary qualities in every super-affiliate and most others who want to have successful affiliate marketing businesses online.

And because affiliate marketing really IS a business in it’s own right, first you have to make sure that you have your own website dedicated to your affiliate marketing promotions. This is vital as it allows you to build your own affiliate marketing opt-in lists and an avenue to promote numerous affiliate opportunities and products instead of promoting just one affiliate link at a time - and having to start all over again for the next affiliate promotion you push.

Next up, always avoid using the affiliate marketing promotional materials that are provided by the affiliate manager or merchant. You will find that you make more sales when you create your own material, including free gifts such as e-books and reports. Use the copy and e-mails provided as a basis for your own articles and blog posts, and study them for any great selling points that were missed - those are the type of points to really hammer home and separate yourself from the affiliate marketing wannabes…

While you promote affiliate products in your affiliate marketing promotions, be sure to promote your website and your opt-in list more than you promote anything else. Super affiliates use article marketing, pay per click ads, forum signatures, social bookmarking and other Web 2.0 methods to drive targeted traffic to their affiliate marketing websites and opt-in lists, then promote the specific affiliate products to their opt-in lists and on their websites. Remember - bring the traffic to YOU - THEN send it to them.

Once in a while, offer bonus gifts to those who purchase through your affiliate marketing links. You can create your own gifts, or use private label rights products. Most affiliates don’t do this, however most of the super affiliates do.

Save it for the more expensive affiliate marketing promotions though - it becomes less effective if you are constantly offering bonuses and, worse yet, you can end up like some who no longer get a buying response from their lists unless they offer some heavy-duty bonuses. If you condition your audience to always buying for the bonuses, you’ll see your affiliate marketing results dropping when you don’t have new bonuses for them.

Another powerful affiliate marketing tactic is to host teleseminars to promote affiliate products. Your teleseminars MUST give your listeners useful information that they can use - and must be on a topic related to the affiliate product you’re promoting. Don’t make the bulk of the call a sales pitch - not only will they hang up, but they’ll avoid your calls in future.

Give them good solid information, either on your own or through an interview, for 55 minutes of a 1-hour call, then use that last five minutes to direct them to the affiliate offer on YOUR affiliate marketing website. Get their opt-in and then funnel them through to the merchant’s salespage - and watch the nice bump you get in your affiliate marketing commissions!

If most of your affiliate marketing activities are in the same niche, write and submit articles on a regular basis. Get your name out there and become a recognized expert in your niche. Also make it a point to actively participate in related forums and newsgroups - always with a link to your site in your signature. As your name recognition and credibility grow, so will the profits you’re raking in from your affiliate marketing efforts!

In summary, always strive to do things just a bit differently to stand out from the rest of the affiliate marketing crowd, but don’t ignore any of the proven marketing methods just because other affiliates are using them. Use EVERY affiliate marketing strategy you can - just be sure to ALWAYS put your own spin on them!

============================
Super affiliate Doug Champigny is a recognized master at combining Web 2.0 techniques with traditional affiliate marketing tactics to stay on the JV leaderboards. To help other affiliates succeed, Doug also wrote the Affiliate Marketing Special Report, freely available on that site.
============================

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, super-affiliates, affiliate training, making money online, Internet marketing, online marketing, super-affiliate Doug Champigny, Doug Champigny

-

Your Own Affiliate Program - Setting Up An Affiliate Program

© Doug Champigny. All Rights Reserved.

Many people realize that operating your own affiliate program is one of the most effective advanced traffic generation techniques, but they don’t get started with their own operation because they mistakenly believe that running an affiliate program is either too hard, too costly - or both. While this once was the case, nowadays anybody can start and manage an affiliate program quite easily, and affordably.

Today, you can be up and running with your own affiliate program in under an hour, for about twenty bucks per month. You do not need a great deal of technical knowledge. You don’t even need a lot of people lined up to be your affiliates. It is very simple, and here is how you do it:

1. Sign up for an account at Hosting4Marketers.com. Follow the instructions there to get your affiliate program completely set up.

2. Visit the top affiliate program directories, and get your affiliate program listed. Also include a page on your website, and your blog, that tells potential affiliates about your opportunity and invites them to join your affiliate program - provide a link to the signup page.

3. Create or order tools for your affiliates, such as access to a marketing course, banners, buttons, and ads that they can use to promote your product. Give them two or three e-mails to use as samples to create their own e-zine articles from. Make sure that you continually provide fresh promotional materials for your affiliates. Most affiliates are fairly lazy - and Super-Affiliates are always Super-Busy. Make it as easy and time-effective as you can for them to promote your products!

4. Spend as much time as you can keeping your affiliates motivated, and ALWAYS make sure that they are paid on time - No Matter What!

That’s it. That’s all there really is to running a successful affiliate program. You can keep your affiliates motivated in numerous ways, but the most popular and effective way seems to be with contests.

Some months, you run a contest for your affiliates, with a prize worth having – from a cash bonus of $100 to a flat screen television, for example. The affiliate that makes the most sales in a month wins the prize! Because your affiliates will be working so hard in order to win the prize, the profits that you realize from their efforts will more than pay for the prize you are offering.

As your sales grow, try to run affiliate contests with 3 or 4 prizes for the top few spots. In most affiliate programs, the same 2 or 3 people will always take top spot, and other affiliates may become discouraged, leaving that ‘top affiliate prize’ a non-starter as a motivating tool. By providing prizes for the top 3 affiliates or top 5 affiliates, you can keep a lot more of them motivated. And always heap public praise on the winners, both in your affiliate mailings and on your affiliate blog.

Again, setting up an affiliate program and working it effectively is an advanced traffic generation method. Expert marketers know that you not only do better with your own product, but you also do better when you have an affiliate sales force to promote that product for you. In fact, many marketers spend the majority of their time motivating and recruiting affiliates, and leave 100% of the website traffic generation up to their affiliates.

If you want to attract the best affiliates to your program, you have to make it worth their time and effort. The standard commission payout for affiliates these days is 50% of all sales that they make, unless the affiliate is a joint venture partner, or considered a super affiliate, in which case you need to pay them anywhere from 60% to 75% commissions on each sale that they make.

Affiliate Power Tip: Over time, a few of your affiliates will show themselves to be much better at promoting your products than the other affiliates in your program. Establish a relationship with them, help them be more effective pushing your products, and even help them with their other promotions too - earn their loyalty and reward them for putting the effort in on your program.

And, as soon as you’ve identified them as one of your power affiliates, be sure to bump up their commission rate. We ALL like to be rewarded for doing our best!

======================
Doug Champigny is a well know Internet marketer, e-zine publisher and Super-Affiliate. He has also authored several books on website traffic generation, and recommends the Massive Traffic Bootcamp for anyone seriously looking to build traffic to their sites and blogs. Read more on generating traffic at his Top Traffic Tips Blog.
======================

Technorati Tags: affiliate programs, setting up affiliate programs, starting an affiliate program, affiliate manager tips, affiliate management, website traffic, super-affiliates, affiliates, affiliate marketing, Doug Champigny

7 Ways to Drive Laser-Targeted Traffic

© Doug Champigny, TopTrafficTips.com

An affiliate marketer may have all the things needed for him to be able to succeed in a business such as affiliate marketing. He may have the necessary drive, diligence and perseverance to be able to understand how the system works. He may have all the tools necessary in maintaining the business, including a really unique and interesting website which could earn him a fortune if only the whole world could see it. However, all these would prove useless if he does not know how to drive traffic to his website. His business would sink into oblivion together with all the sales, fortune and dreams that he might have realized if he only knew how to do this particular task.

Getting people who matter to see one’s website is a difficult undertaking if he tries to consider the fact that there are rivals everywhere waiting to pin him down. The immensity of the internet as well as the affiliate marketing world has given birth to the fierce competition between affiliate marketers, each of whom has his own great product to offer. With all the websites piling on top of each other, how would one be able to stand out? The seven best ways to drive laser-targeted traffic to one’s own website would help those who are bent on sticking it out with this business wherever it is bound to take them.

The first step in driving traffic to one’s website is by relying on search engines and what they can do for the affiliate marketer concerned. Because they are popular for driving free targeted traffic, they should not be ignored by all means. Having top search engine rankings is vital in building popularity links, and the use of the right keywords is important in attaining this goal. Once a website is on top of the list, it is easily accessible to anyone who wants to see it for himself.

The second way in driving traffic to one’s website is by contacting other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership. Locating websites that are related to one’s own website is the primary task. Once there, he should be able to establish communication by personalizing everything as much as possible. It is then possible to make reciprocal link exchanges between webmasters whichever way the affiliate marketer prefers.

The third way is through writing one’s own articles. This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writer’s very own website out of sheer interest.

The fourth way is through joint venture marketing. This is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or a service. Having a partner through ad swap or link exchange is beneficial to both parties as it allows them to reach a wide customer base in a short amount of time.

The fifth is through joining affiliate programs. Having affiliates to do the work means allowing them to bring tons of traffic to a website. Skyrocketing sales would be realized as a result, and both the affiliate and the website owner will benefit from the situation.

The sixth is by having a list of subscribers that one can refer to every so often, because they are those which would prove to be valuable assets for the marketer concerned. The use of autoresponders and personalized newsletters is one way of keeping track of them all, and holding on to them by letting them know about new products and services is an essential task that should be done by the affiliate marketer concerned.

The seventh is by knowing one’s market through and through. It is important for traffic to be targeted to those who might have a special interest in the theme or topic of one’s website. This way, a solid customer base is going to be created. Once a potential customer shows an interest in a particular website by paying it a visit, one must not waste time in trying to show him that his effort is worth it.

Targeted traffic-generating strategies are important in trying to make one’s affiliate marketing career inch forward. It is always advantageous to plan one’s moves in any business that he might undertake. This is particularly so in affiliate marketing. If one knows how to get people to see what he has to offer, then they are on the right track.

=======================
Doug Champigny is a well-known super affiliate and owner of The Affiliate Marketing Blog. Doug’s e-books on building targeted traffic include Becoming A Traffic Pro and Advanced Website Traffic Generation. For more on driving targeted traffic to YOUR websites & blogs, see the Top Traffic Tips Bundle.
=======================

Technorati Tags: Targeted traffic, website traffic, driving traffic, affiliate traffic, traffic for affiliates, affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing tips, traffic tips, TopTrafficTips.com, Becoming A Traffic Pro, Advanced Website Traffic Generation, Doug Champigny e-books, Doug Champigny