7 Ways To Put Your Affiliate Income On Steroids by Cornell Griffiths

7 Ways To Put Your Affiliate Income On Steroids by Cornell Griffiths

As an affiliate, have you ever out of frustration wondered why your sales don't reflect the effort you're putting out?

Chances are one of THE biggest mistakes you're making is that you're using the same standard banners, classifieds
and articles that everyone else uses to promote their products and services.

Separate yourself from the millions of others by simple being unique. arketers call it "Unique Selling Proposition" or USP.

But then...

How can you be unique?

1. Write Your Own Ads

Put your flair and personality into your
ads. Make it fun. Ever seen the Geico ads? Use humor. People will always remember a funny ad more than than the drab, standard ones. Practice writing catchy headlines and load your ads with benefits and not features of the product.

2. Create Your Own Website

Most affiliate programs give you
the same standard website as everyone
else. Boring. Create your own. Use
your website to address a problem the
reader may have. Fill the content with
keywords so the search engines will list
them high and use your link to your product as the answer to their problem.

3. Always capture email addresses

On your site, you should always have
a form or link to allow eaders/prospects
to get more ideas or advice from you in
the form of a newsletter or timed mailings. Follow up with autoresponder messages as, on average, it takes 7 contacts with the propsect before they actually purchase.

4. Offer bonuses

If you can offer meaningful bonuses,
it makes a world of difference. Say you're promoting a Web marketer's copywriting ebook. Offer to send 10,000 guaranteed hits to their site once their webpage is up. Ensure that the cost of the bonus is less than the revenue from the product though.

5. Visit forums

Visit forums related to the product
you're promoting. Look for questions
posted by members and see if you can
answer them. After posting, you could
include your signature and url to the
website u created as a resource. Chances
are you'll have a customer for life.
A great forum to visit and build your
customers is www.Ryze.com where you'll
find people to network and interact
with.

6. Conduct Group Chats

Every once in a while, you should interact with your list by group chats. Follow up with individuals on your list who've purchased or who're still prospects. Find out any problems
they're experiencing and connect with them. Display customer service and show you care. Almost everyone uses a messenger of some sort:Yahoo, MSN or AOL. Encourage individuals to add you to your Friends list. Let them get to know you.

7. Advertise Freely Offline

A lot of affiliates don't do this but
you'll find that people who've never
been crazy about computers and the Internet will get online just to check out your offer. It's the middle of winter, you're waiting on the light to change to red but little do you know that the middle-aged motorist behind you
is taking a keen interest in your sticker on your back windshield which says: "Wouldn't YOU like to be in Jamaica right now?" http://www.yaddayaddayadada.com which would be your vacations site outlining the benefits to the reader of a sunny getaway in the Caribbean climaxed with your cloaked hotel affiliate website.

There are many creative ways to spur your affiliate income if you just sit and think about it. Brainstorm and try them out. Eventually, you'll soar and become the eagle you're supposed to be.

About the Author
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Cornell Griffiths is a member of the team of copywriters at Copywrite Plus (http://www.copywriteplus.com). Outside of copywriting, he practices affiliate marketing and stock options trading. His latest project can be viewed at:
http://www.guaranteedprofits.ws
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Affiliate Goals - Successful Goal Setting for Affiliates by Ratliff, J

Affiliate Goals - Successful Goal Setting for Affiliates by Ratliff, J

When I first started out with Affiliate Marketing a few years ago, my primary goal was a very simple one. I just wanted enough money to pay for my hosting, which at the time was an ungodly $40 per month for a small website. Of course, these days you can host a hundred websites for $40 and have tons of features, but back then this was normal.

As the years went by, my affiliate sales grew slowly to around $500 a month. It was then I realized that maybe I could turn this part time income into a full time salary. I had not really devoted a lot of time to researching affiliate programs. I would simply find one that would pay off, and use it. The day I realized I could earn more than the $500 per month, I set down some goals to get me started. I have fine tuned these goals over the past 24 months, thankfully I had to because to be honest, I was obliterating my financial expectations.

So, my goals in the beginning were pretty simple:

1. Find an affiliate program that pays $50 per month to cover my website hosting fees.
2. Make sure it is related to the content of my website.

Not much there huh?

A year ago, these were my goals:

1. Earn $500 per month through the Major Affiliate Networks
2. Look into smaller affiliate networks, including independant merchant.
3. Create websites devoted to the product or service I am marketing.
4. Change hosting providers to allow for up to 100 domain names / websites.
5. Continue to learn more about new affiliate oppurtunities.

As you can see, my goals grew substantially. I am proud to say I met all those goals within a few months, instead of the year I had planned.

My goals from 2004:

1. Earn $3000 per month average through June 2005.
2. Earn $5,000 per month average from June 2005 until December 2005.
3. Continue to create websites that reflect a postive buying experience.
4. Write more articles and website content promoting the products I am marketing.
5. Create an ebook that will help others learn the affiliate business.
6. Teach family and friends what an affiliate actually does!
7. Create a website devoted solely to affiliate programs and list the many programs available.
8. Become a merchant in the sense of marketing my ebook using an affiliate program.
9. Write a true business plan for my affiliate business.
10. Learn the tax laws so I can properly prepare my taxes.

Wow! That is a long list of goals for one year!

Here is where I stand on those goals.

#1. Earn $3000 average. My PROFIT for Jan 2005 was over $6,000.
#4. I try to write 2 articles every day promoting a product.
#5. I have created an ebook available at http://www.internet-cash-system.com
#6. I have started teaching my friends and family what I do.
#7. I have created an affiliate directory at http://www.affiliate-directory.us
#8. I have created an affiliate program using Clickbank for my ebook.
#10. I learned the tax laws and statues I needed to do my own 2004 taxes.

So, as you can see, I am making great progress already.

Now, you may ask why have all these goals?
The answer is simple. I think that goals equal success.
Goals give us something to strive for and reinforce our belief we can reach those goals.
A few years ago, I never dreamed I would making the kind of money I do today.
Now, I plan on evaluating my goals every six months, and making changes as needed.

To see my best performing affiliate programs, visit the Affiliate Directory.

About the Author
J. Ratliff is a successful affiliate. He has an affiliate directory to share the best affiliate programs and a personal blog at www.jamieratliff.com.