Monday, January 26, 2009

Tips for distributing and marketing the affiliate link

Here are some tips I got from one of the programs I am participating with:

List your affiliate link on Search Engines
Get your affiliate URL listed on search engines. This will allow you to start getting web traffic from casual browsers. Most search engines will allow you to list your URL for free. For a small fee, you can also hire the services of a marketing agency that will post your affiliate links and descriptions on multiple search engines.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines to find a list of search engines. The most popular search engines are Google (www.google.com), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), AOL (www.aol.com), MSN (www.msn.com), and Ask (www.ask.com).

Place FREE classified advertisements
Get free publicity by placing free online classified ads. If you are not sure what to post on these sites, please see the samples provided for you in the “Materials” section of the Affiliate Portal. While there are numerous places to list FREE classified advertisements, some of the popular ones are Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), Kijiji (www.kijiji.com), Oodle (www.oodle.com), and Hoobly (www.hoobly.com).

Social Networking Websites
Social Networking sites are not only the new trend, they are the fastest ways to get the word out about yourself and your new business. Get the word out! Social Networking sites are online communities where individuals share interests, activities and information. If you don't already belong to one, join a social network. They are FREE. Join and get your word out!
The most popular Social Networking sites are MySpace (www.MySpace.com), Facebook (www.Facebook.com), Hi5 (www.Hi5.com), and Friendster (www.Friendster.com).

Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks that are shared with their community of friends. You can bookmark your affiliate link and it will be bookmarked for your network of friends, so they can easily retrieve your affiliate link and go to your webpage to purchase. These sites provide web feeds for their users so everyone in the network can see the new sites that have been saved. This gives your affiliate link more prominence and promotes it.
The most popular Social Bookmarking sites are Digg (www.digg.com), Delicious (www.delicious.com), Reddit (www.Reddit.com), and StumbleUpon (www.StumbleUpon.com)

Banners and Text links on other websites
Post “Banner Ads” and “Text Link” on other websites. This can be a very cost-effective way of generating lots of traffic to your Affiliate Link. We have made banner ads and text links available for you in the Materials section of the Affiliate Portal. Simply click on the item of your choice and the html will display next to the ad or link. You must copy and paste the html to its final destination for the hyperlink to properly route customers to your affiliate page. Make sure you do not simply save the banner image as it will not route traffic correctly to your page.

Your Signatures!
A FREE, yet extremely effective tool is to put your affiliate link in your signature for emails and blog postings! Make sure you use this everywhere you send emails or post messages, for example – when you send messages via your different email accounts, include your affiliate link under your name, when you sign off the email. Include your affiliate link when you post on message boards, chat rooms, or other internet forums.

Blogs
Blogs are information content pages where users post their views and discuss topics. If you search online for “DISH Network blogs” or “Electronics Blogs” or “TV Blogs”, you will find numerous results for that search. Start participating in those blogs and raise the awareness for your affiliate link, for DISH Network, and how people can use your link to find the best value product in television programming. This gets the word out for your affiliate link, and you will see an increase in your traffic.

Follow these basic tips, and you will see how the traffic on your affiliate link starts to build up. The higher your traffic, the more sales it will result in, and the more money you will make.

Good luck
Kobi
http://www.oneinmillion.ws