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Affiliate Marketing Tutorial:
5. How do I start Affiliate Marketing?
The accepted advice with affiliate marketing is that we should always start with a topic and subject area that fascinates us. The argument goes that if we are interested in a subject, we will have far more to say about it and we will also enjoy our work and be motivated by it.
As with most things that are said about Affiliate Marketing, there is certainly a measure of truth in this. We should always be interested in what we are doing. We should always have our visitors' interests at heart.
However, I believe that the professional Affiliate Marketer can be as interested in the process - the process of bringing excellent products and services to his or her customers - as he is in the products or services themselves. I like the idea of trying to be a librarian of the web; trying to sort out for my clients the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. And I believe that I can bring sincerity and honest judgement to almost any topic or commercial area.
The advantage of such an approach is that we can start with our clients. We can start with those topic areas and subjects that people themselves are interested in. We can try in a calm and professional way to take ourselves out of the equation. Admittedly, this may mean that our recommendations sometimes lack fervour and passion but our sites can still be passionate about doing well by your customers. In fact I believe that most Internet searchers usually respond better to cool dispassionate logic than to someone with an axe to grind. I try to treat my visitors as fellow searchers after value and quality. I try to present the information in the clearest way that I can and to enable my visitors to make up their own minds. This is part of a view that we should treat other people in the way that we like to be treated ourselves. I hate to be bullied or patronised or belittled. I like to keep my own critical faculties. I try never to underestimate the intelligence of my visitors and I believe that most people respond well to being treated with respect.
Another advantage of an approach that starts with what people are looking for is that of necessity it will mean that our portfolio of affiliate sites will eventually become diverse. We will not become over dependent on any one sector. This does not necessarily mean that we become all things to all men. In fact, it is essential in this business to keep our integrity. In my case, I am not prepared to cater for everything that people are searching for on the Net. For instance, I would not be prepared to promote sexual services or gambling sites. This is not so much that I am necessarily prudish or moralistic about these areas, it is just that I would not feel comfortable promoting them. An affiliate marketer stands or falls by their good judgement and good name. If our visitors feel that we do not care about them or that we will promote anything for a fast buck then they will be less likely to trust us.
Next Page: 6. Affiliate Marketing Techniques
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Affiliate Marketing Tutorial - Table of Contents:
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- Introduction
- Who is best suited to Affiliate Marketing?
- Outline
- What do I need to start?
- How do I start Affiliate Marketing?
- Techniques
- Search Engine Positioning
- Selling and Affiliate Marketing
- Pay Per Click Advertising
- Traffic Building
- Further Reading
- Resources
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