Affiliate Marketing - Stuff I've Learnt in a Month

Hi everyone

I started with Amazon UK affiliate marketing in early January. As a complete newbie to this previously, I have managed to get 4 sales in January from 3 sites.

Not a lot I know, but for my first month I'm more than happy - especially considering it's right after Xmas and the UK economy is still suffering, not to mention the competition from Play.com which offers free deliveries on everything they stock.

Here is what I did:

* Picked one niche that interested me
* Split the niche up even further and created 3 sites
* Wrote from my heart with the desire to genuinely help people
* Wrote on average 10 articles for each site
* Submitted each article to on average 6 directories
* Concentrated on a wide spread of keywords

Here is what I have learnt:

* The more value you offer in the review, the better
* Tag your posts up with keywords - LOTS of longtail traffic coming through tags which have been indexed - this has been the biggest surprise
* Don't get too concerned up about ranking for trophy phrases
* Once you identify what works, do it a lot more
* Write with passion and truth! This is how you can differ from the sales copy on store websites. If you have negative points, don't hide them, subtly point them out then offer a solution (upsell!)

Hoping to ramp up my efforts in February and aiming for double the sales this month. I am just about to step out of my primary niche and explore what else is out there. If you're looking to get going selling physical products, hopefully this has given you a little direction.

EDIT: I feel I should also tell you that I work from home as a web developer/designer and SEO specialist, so due to this I have time and skills to set up sites reasonably quickly. This should not put you off if you are not experienced - it is all part of the learning curve and great skills to master!

Matt