Just what does it take to become successful at Affiliate Marketing? What are the ingredients of an Affiliate Marketing Success Story? Is there an easy solution to Affiliate Marketing Greatness? These are questions that are asked by most people who want to make an income in Affiliate Marketing.

Even though Affiliate Marketing is rated as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it’s not as easy as it sounds. The Smart Affiliate Marketer plans and executes every action in the best way they can and maximizes the potential to earn by employing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing Business.

Having consulted some of the most successful Affiliate Marketers in the business I’ve discovered the Most Essential Tools for a Successful Affiliate Marketing Business.

Essential Tool #1: Your Own Website

Your own website is not only the most important tool in Affiliate Marketing, all of the Top Affiliate Marketers agree that it is indispensable. You need a good, credible and professional looking “Squeeze Page” in order to maximize the potential of any Successful Affiliate Marketing Business. Here’s how it works.

In order to get traffic to your site you need to advertise. If your advertising sends people to the sales page of the product that you’re promoting then you’ve lost something very valuable, even if they buy the product and you make a commission. You haven’t collected their contact information and you aren’t building your own list. All the “Big Guys” in Affiliate Marketing stress the importance of building your own opt-in list to whom you can present follow up information and promote other products for which you are an Affiliate.

Simply put, a “Squeeze Page” pre-sells the product that you’re promoting and offers a “Bonus” to those visitors who fill in and submit the form. The form, which is tied into an Autoresponder, then redirects your visitor to the product sales page. By using this method you’ve accomplished two things; you’ve added to your mailing list and you’ve put your visitor in front of the product that you’re promoting. Even if they don’t buy the product you still have their contact information and you can send them other offers and information.

**Here is an example of a Squeeze Page**

One final point before we move on. If you are going to use Google AdWords to advertise you need to know that Google frowns on the use of Affiliate Links in your AdWords Ads and there is a very great chance that your ads won’t be shown. By sending traffic to your own website you will avoid this problem.

Essential Tool #2: An Autoresponder

Obviously, in order for the method in the previous section to work, you need an Autoresponder. Your Autoresponder will create the form for your Squeeze Page, will collect your visitors’ contact information, will redirect your visitors’ to the sales page and
will send out a series of pre-written emails to your subscribers.

So what do you put in this pre-written set of emails? Content. Here’s a suggested plan.

Email #1
* Thank them for their interest
* Provide the download link to their “Bonus”
* Supply a link to the Original Product (in case they didn’t already buy)
* Inform them that an Unadvertised Bonus is a Subscription to your Newsletter
* Give them a link to the First Edition of your Newsletter.

Ok, this takes a bit of work but is absolutely necessary for success. Write or acquire a series of articles about your niche and set up a seperate webpage for each article. Put AdSense blocks and Product Ads on each page. Take advantage of every form of advertising here.

Now, the rest of your Autoresponder emails will simply provide the links to your series of articles.

Remember to also include some content in the email. You don’t want to just send a “Click Here” email. Be conversational and friendly. You are building a relationship with your subscribers. You want them to like you, trust you and even admire you.

By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a believable expert in your niche, making you a more trustworthy promoter of the product or service you’re offering. The first step in building up a loyal consumer base is Establishing a Good Reputation .

You need to use every method you can find to encourage people to, not only to visit your site, but also click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting. A good Autoresponder will have a Broadcast feature that allows you to send the same email to your entire list whenever you like. So you can send an offer to your subscribers whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I hope you have found this article both informative and interesting.

To Your Success
Paul Johnston
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