STUPID NEWBIE QUESTION - Do i send traffic to MY site or directly to the VENDORS site

I think you answer your own question in the PS.

Send them to your site and get their e-mail address. Set up a follow up sequence for 5 days selling the product from the vendor's site to them.

You'll end doing better out of it in the long run.

Thom

Hi courage,
If the affiliate product you are promoting, is in a niche you are interested in, with a view to building your own long term business in this niche, then an opt-in form on your site is a must.
Driving traffic straight to a sales page is not really a good idea, people will buy when they know and trust you. Work on the opt in and building a relationship with your list with follow up emails.
Once people trust you they are much more likely to buy.
It takes longer but you will reap more benefits later down the line
All the best
Steve Gibson

Depends on what you are trying do. I have CPA campaigns going straight to the vendor site for the mere purpose of making a fast profit. I want as few hoops for the visitor as possible. But other times I will want to build a list and/or sell my own products (along with affiliate products). And of course you want to get backlinks to your own sites so they will eventually rank well. At that time your traffic will be free. Most of my affiliate and CPA income comes from sites and blogs that are ranked well in the search engines.

Its not a stupid question, funnily enough majority of marketers send them straight to the vendors site...

and thats WRONG, that's another way of spamming....

you want to be giving value, you make sure you send them your unique site, and believe me no matter how ****ty you say it is you will get feeback...

whereas if you were to keep sending them to your vendors site youll just be like the rest adding no value whatsoever....

keep doing what your doing, REMEMBER YOUR MAIN FOCUS IS ON BUILDING YOUR LIST, NOT MAKING A SALE....

SALES COME AFTER THE LIST, THIS IS EXACTLY HOW IT IS

TRAFFIC---->>>YOUR BLOG----->>>>EMAIL LIST----->>>>SALES

Hope it makes sense

Louise Evans

You've already answered your question in your PS. Affiliate marketing is really a profitable business if done right. Since you mentioned that you already started collecting email leads, then you should direct your customers first to your site. Directing your customers to the vendor's sales page is a wrong idea. People might not buy during their first visit, and worse, if the vendor has an opt-in form, they might subscribe. Then, the vendor can follow them up and make a sale, which results to the vendor earning money and not you..

List building should be the number 1 priority online, especially in affiliate marketing. Ive never seen a super affiliate earning more than $10,000/month without a list. So, start building your list, direct them to your site first. You can also create a squeeze page and offer a free report about your niche, then after some time, you can recommend a product to your subscribers that is also related in your niche and the free report that you just gave away.

Just remember, build relationship first. Provide them valuable info on a regular basis. Send more gifts to them.

Hope this helps.

take your traffic to squeeze page and get their email.
just buy or create an ebook as your gift for your subscriber.
about the design, hire someone to make your squeeze page or googling a free squeeze page theme