How to Achieve Breakthrough Success in Affiliate Marketing

Are you just beginning the journey toward building your own business online?

You've searched online for real business ideas and products to promote. Instead, you're bombarded with hyped up emails, sales pages with promises of quick cash and 'flavor of the month' products.

Makes you want to just shut it down, and go away and get a second job instead!

But you persist, and decide that you'll become an affiliate marketer. Good idea! Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online.

• You don't need to create products.
• A sales system is in place for you.
• The customer service is handled for you.
• No need to answer sales questions.
• As an affiliate, you just promote a product and get paid.

Doesn't this sound fantastic - so simple!

Then why is it that up to 95% of affiliates never make money online, and in fact, may even lose money?

Yes, it's true. Very very few make a full time living marketing affiliate products.

Why is the failure rate so high? What is so difficult in promoting a product and making money?

I don't pretend to have all the answers. What I have learned over the past few years in my own online marketing journey is hyped up sales fluff just doesn't work.

So what are the practices and systems that work well, and if used correctly and consistently, will bring you success?

Four things you must do immediately to succeed in affiliate marketing:

1. Choose one solid product to begin with.

Choose a product that meets a need or solves a real problem for a lot of people. Does it have a proven track record - a history of happy customers? Check for - and read or listen to - customer testimonials. Search out reviews from others.

A great product will have a high enough price point and affiliate commission to cover your promotion costs and turn you a profit. High priced products are often referred to as 'top tier.'

Don't waste your time choosing a product with a $20 commission as your main product. Why spend your advertising dollars promoting something that makes a tiny commission, when the same advertising budget can net you much more?

Once you're experienced, and have created a list of people to market to, you can choose some of these smaller-ticket products as secondary ones to market.

2. Model great ad copy.

Unless you're already a great copywriter and SEO expert, constantly take note of how others advertise. Collect a 'swipe file' - ads and sales copy - so you can refer back to specific ads and phrases that caught your eye and that you found to be interesting and compelling.

Look at the ads on Google and MSN or Yahoo. If you see the same one many times, that one is working for someone.

The key word here is 'model.' Never steal another person's ad, email or sales page. Instead see how they've laid out the text, what specific words are used to engage the prospective buyer, and how they've used videos or images to create interest.

Study books by advertising greats like Joe Sugarman, Joe Vitale and Dan Kennedy. These three men are master copywriters. Opt in to blogs by top marketing bloggers. Notice how they position their emails and sales copy.

Good affiliate programs provide ad copy, banners and emails that their affiliate marketing partners can use. Begin with these, and then, as you get results, develop your own.

3. Track your results.

Unless you know which ads or emails are bringing you customers, you're never going to be successful. You may think you have written a great ad, but unless you have proof that it's making conversions for you, you're just spinning your wheels.

Each ad you write, or each banner or email must be tracked. You must know how many times clicks it got, and how many clicks have converted to customers. You do this by adding a tracking code or using a tracking program.

Some affiliate programs provide a back office that allows you to add a specific tracking link to each advertisement. Many others do not.

HyperTracker is a service that helps you track ad links, gives statistics for different campaigns, tracks conversions and can even figure out profit or loss! It has good reviews from customers who find it very easy to use with great support, and at a low cost under $20 per month.

LinkTrackr is another excellent web-based service that you can use to cloak your affiliate links and track results. You can even install it as a plug-in on a WordPress blog to make your keywords into links, and monetize your blog.

4. Get people on your list.

You've likely heard that "the gold is in the list." Your own list to follow up with and to market to is one of the most profitable things you can create.

This means that you'll have to set up your own follow up system. You begin by finding or creating something of value that you can give to others. This could be an e-book, a course, a report or a video, as long as it's closely related to the affiliate product you're promoting. Do all this on your blog, or with a stand-alone capture page.

Set up a list in your auto-responder (we use Aweber). As people opt-in with an email address to receive your free offer, they'll be added your list. These are prospects who want to know more, and believe you can give them the information they're looking for.

Once they're in your system your follow up emails should offer more valuable tips and information. Include your link back to your main product in your signature. Occasionally broadcast an email sales offer either about your primary product or a related affiliate product.

These are the four most important ideas to focus on in the beginning in order to break through the marketing maze to the success at affiliate marketing that you're striving towards.

Nicolette Goff is part of a husband and wife team that strives to help others along their path to success. She publishes tips and articles on all aspects of online marketing on their blog, http://www.DennisandNicki.com.

Grab a copy of her comprehensive guide to Article Marketing Domination on their website, and learn how to successfully integrate article marketing into your affiliate marketing.

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