My first site is up and running--now what?

First of all you will want to select a topic for your site. Once you select your topic go to a relevant forum and begin talking to people while putting a link in your signature.

the best advice I can give you is to read the TOS, in that document you will find key information about what works and what may not work, also there are tons of resources,

start here https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

Read and then read some more, make sure your not breaking any rules, lots of online affiliate programs are really clamping down on rules and regs, just do a search for all the Google accounts that have been terminated over the last 30 days, plus there are tons of Amazon accounts that have been shut down, its a huge problem and since most of the time these "Internet Giants that make Billions of dollars a year" Cannot be bothered to publish or answer a phone call.

So its up to you to know the rules and not to break them, there are actually some wordpress plugins that break the Amazon TOS, you might get away with it for a time but one day you will get an email and nothing you say or do will make any difference at all, in fact it is like your not even dealing with a human any more...

and Guess what you would be right, most of the time your dealing with a soulless computer with the dead eyes of a shark swimming in the moonlight.

Are you scared....

Good, now go and read, everything you need to know to make money at Amazon is right there on that website, make sure your not breaking rules, because computers do not care about how much money you might loose is you break the rules.

Pinster, Tim just gave you some of the best advice you could hope to get. You will have to put in some work to get qualified visitors to your site.

If you are new, you have a lot of reading, studying and testing to do. Focus on getting your current site profitable before you jump at the next shiny thing. It's sometimes difficult but effort and persistence is the magic formula that everyone seeks.

Personally I use SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You may also use paid adds (Google Adwords, Google Image Adds, Facebook Adds), article syndication, article marketing (not very effective any more, but better than nothing). Of course there are plenty more, but none of them come to mind. Hoping others will chime in.

It all depends on you budget. As I understand, you have a completely built website - with reviews, products from Amazon to sell etc.

In my personal experience, some of the best traffic generation services can be bought here, on the Warrior Forum - Warriors For Hire section. Just look at the more trusted providers, find a deal that suits you and let someone else do the work for you. I believe that spending your own time on SEO and traffic is just not worth it. But that's just me.

Or, you could use a service like Google Adwords, but it can get quite expensive, esspecially when, in case of Amazon Associates program, your commission may not be much better than the CPL (Cost Per Lead).

So, my suggestion, learn about keyword research, use the Google Keyword Tool to find the profitable (high enough searches, low enough competition) keywords, find a SEO service to move you up the Google rankings, and sooner or later you should start seeing some revenue. But put in the effort into the keywords - they will be key in what kind of traffic you get!

Hope this helps.



- Gediminas

If you are looking for free options I think you should create a Facebook Page, maybe even a Linkedin Account, and just start getting the word out about your services.

Try to include links and pictures and make it exciting for people to look at.

You're going to have to put a good SEO plan together. Also hit up (but don't spam) relevant forums. Perhaps some relevant blog comments will help too.

I'm not sure on the rules but you could maybe post it on slickdeals.net and fatwallet.com

Cheers

If you want FREE traffic and long-term income, I'd suggest you SEO. You'll need to be patient as it requires time.

If you want FASTER ways to get traffic, you can use PPC(Adwords, FB Ads, etc).

Good luck!