Some tips for Affiliate Marketers

So Google has changed its policies regarding affiliate advertising. In case you don't know, their new policy will allow only one ad per search query for affiliates and the parent company with the same url.

So what does this mean for affiliates? It means that you are going to have to actually do a thing called work to get people to your affiliate page. Here are some suggestions of things that you can do to get people to your affiliate page and still meet Google's requirements.

-You must have your own website. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. You are just going to have to have your own url so that you can increase your chances of being listed on Google.

-Your site needs to have relevant content. It is important for you to have content on your site besides just whatever programs you are promoting. Your visitors might not buy your product right away, but if you give them some free useful content, they will remember you when they do have the opportunity to make a purchase. If you are looking for free content, a great place to start is ezinearticles.com.

-You should also keep a blog related to the topic of the product you are promoting. Blogs are basically an online diary. You can set up a blog for free at many websites. Personally I prefer blogger.com. When you use blogger.com, you get your own domain name and you can customize your template. Also it's owned by Google now so I don't think that this service is going anywhere. You can also post pictures and you can use blogger for audio blogging, so you could even create your own internet talk show. You can add your affiliate links on the sidebar and you can also include articles related to the product and link to it at the bottom of the article.

-You also need to have your own opt-in list. This can be in the form of an ezine or you can use an autoresponder. This is vitally important, because you need to have a group of people that value your opinion and will check out a product or service just because you recommended it.

-It's also important to write your own ads. Many times I have published the same affiliate ad 5 times in one issue. It is much more effective for you as an affiliate if your ad is different, because people will be much more likely to click on it just to find out what it is you are selling.

-Network, Network, Network. These changes make it even more important to network. One excellent place to network online is ryze.com. Ryze.com attracts the exact type of people who will support you. Don't just post your ads, however, really get in there and participate. Offer advice, answer the weekly questions that some of the networks post, post an interesting article. You are building relationships and that will go a long way for you in your business.

My last words on this topic are to keep tweaking your ads for performance and to never quit. It may take you a while to turn your business into a profitable venture, but when you do, yes I said when and not if, it will be well worth the effort.