What's the Best Strategy For Affiliate Marketing?

They will. I'd even advise you perhaps to take with a pinch of salt the advice of those who don't.

Well, leaving mostly aside the little matter that organic SEO traffic is generally among the least valuable kinds for affiliate sales, I think the answer is "the same way as you combine list-building with traffic from almost any other source".

Rarely, but yes, sometimes.

Yes. That's the primary purpose of all my niche websites.

There and then? Nooooooo. I don't say it's impossible, of course, but you'd be looking at tiny numbers, that way. Most people need to visit a sales page several times before they buy. You need to keep them returning. Which is one of the reasons you need the list.

... then you should think again. The linkjuice value to your site depends mostly on the relevance of the site-linked-from to your site, not on the page rank.

Well, I don't think this at all. The primary purpose of my site is to build a list. So I want all the traffic landing on the page which has the biggest chance of doing that (which happens to be my home page, where the opt-in is prominently incentivized and explained). If I sent them to other pages, not only would very, very few buy but I wouldn't even manage to opt them in, that way.

I think so, yes. If that's where you prominently incentivize the opt-in. That's "what it's all about".

In other words, you get to decide which page(s) you use as your landing page(s). If, like me, you're always using the home page as your landing page, and incentivizing/explaining the opt-in on that page, then that's the page to which you mostly want to link.

I wouldn't, myself. But you could, yes.

Yes, indeed. That's what I do.

I wouldn't touch either of those. I want niche keywords, not product keywords.

If you're promoting a specific product on Amazon, say, and looking only for "immediate buying traffic" and not wanting to build a list at all, those are exactly the sorts of keywords you'd go for.

Much more like it (except those specific examples will be horribly competitive, I guess? But the principle is right).

The solution/problem/niche keywords.

I don't.

I wouldn't want to.

My visitors wouldn't opt in to that. It would look just like a typical "affiliate marketer's site". That's the sort of site from which people (with difficulty) build lists of which only 25% of the subscribers even open and read their emails. :p

It depends what you mean by "end it". I don't want to try to start selling people a product the minute they arrive at my site. I'd never build lists, that way.

Thanks a lot Alexa. Excellent advice and exactly what I was looking for. I now see things a lot more clearly. Now it's time to do some keyword research. I don't suppose you have any advice on that part, do you?

One more thing, I suppose the time frame for this depends on how much and how quickly I can generate traffic, which is why I was talking about purchasing high PR links.

First, Alexa is correct that relevancy is better than merely high PR.

You can get links from high PR "urls" for free. Besides, buying high PR links can be very tricky, and Google is all over this. Not worth the effort, from what I've read and heard.

If your example is accurate, regarding what you'll be doing, and you're promoting CB products - Google will probably cancel and delete your brand new Adwords account. If you're brand new, and it seems you are, then avoid promoting affiliate products via Adwords. It can be done but it's best left until you learn much more about avoiding problems.

If you want to do PPC, then use MS Adcenter (Bing), 7 Search (learn how to block IPs from trolls and useless traffic), AdBrite, possibly Miva, maybe Facebook depending on the niche.

If you're willing to buy high PR links, then get your marketing and sales funnel in place and use that money for PPC. A squeeze page or landing page (on your site), and start small.

Test your PPC campaigns and always split test your ads. No need to rush. Small daily budget of $5 or $10 at the most until you know what you're doing and can get some test results.

Learn how to write good presell copy. Send people to the presell page which can be on your landing page - not squeeze page. Then have one or two text links at the bottom or mid to bottom of the presell and send them to the sales copy.

Learn how to find good affiliate products with sales pages that are well written. Ask Alexa how to do that. I know... but she has links, I think, to these topics.

Make an email list... as Alexa has told you, I think.

Don`t over complicate this issue

Get a squeeze page created giving away a solid report or video series around a niche which has lots of buyers and lots of products within that niche

Something like "10 mouth watering recipes that turn your body into a fat burning machine"

Have a good solid OTO set up too after their opt in

Get a 7 day follow up sequence set up with some soft sells and hard sells promoting either your own product or affiliate products

Then drive as much targeted traffic to your squeeze page as you possibly can and watch conversions

Then grow your funnel, create your own products and optimize conversions

That`s it

Doesn`t have to be anymore complex than this

Paul

Alexa's answers are always very helpful. However, I would say you also should try to build a site with very good content that is deemed worthy by Google . More and more sites that are designed to sell affiliate programs and to get people to sign on to a list, are being demoted. So, you will probably need to use other traffic methods, including paid, to get people to the page where you are hoping to get people to subscribe. Good content sites is a better long term strategy to rank well, get shared by people, and therefore increasing the likelihood of free ways to get people to sign up.

But if you want to make a lot of money here and now, then this strategy may not work because it can time to rank.

Thanks for the help. I'm weighing up my options at the moment, so am also reading everything I can about CPA; however, there's something I'm confused about.

- Are there different strategies when it comes to CPA, depending on whether you're relying on organic traffic, paid traffic or if your goal is to build a list?

- I've seen people say that you should build a 10 page or so website as well as a landing page, and then direct traffic to the landing page. But what's the point of having 10 articles + a landing page if I want traffic to go to the offer I'm promoting i.e. the landing page. Is it for list building purposes?

- Say I'm trying to promote Netflix and use the term" Watch Dexter Online." I take it that I can create a 1 page website consisting of just a landing page for the offer I'm promoting, as it's very relevant to what people are looking for.

However, say I'm trying to promote a free trial for a diet pill. What should my KW be? Should it be something along the lines of

"How to lose weight"
"Top 10 diet pills"
"Product free trial"
"Product Review"

Maybe I'm just over thinking this but I'm confused either way. I suppose what it is I'm asking is that if I'm solely relying on organic traffic (to start off with, anyway), then what's the best way to go about promoting CPA offers.

Alexa makes DELIVERING MASSIVE VALUE a understatment. Honestly her actions and advice is your answer. Deliver MASSIVE VALUE!! You will stand out from the rest and be the one who people trust and ultimately buy from.

I do both (go for sales from my sites and attract subscribers) and the reason is if my site is established and I can attract buyer keyword searches, I might as well capitalize on it.

I create separate sections within my site with different sidebars. My "review" direct sale sections are set up to provide all the resources they need to make a buying decision (buying guide, comparison charts and long and helpful reviews). My optin forms are slightly less prominent (but there).

Therefore, I'll have sections that are geared toward attracting subscribers and sections that focus on product reviews, comparison charts, buyer guides ... i.e. generating the immediate sale.

I generate a decent income by selling directly off of my sites. It's actually nearly a full time income these days so I can't ignore this model. Besides I like doing it. I really enjoy buying products, testing them and writing helpful reviews, buying guides, etc.

I used to avoid list building, but am doing it on all of my sites these days. I'm still green, but am earning decently. It's a long term strategy that is no doubt smart for longevity.

I find subs from my blog and YouTube videos are more responsive than buying traffic to squeeze pages. Cheaper too, but slower-going.

The key for me with going for the immediate on-site sale via reviews is to provide all the buying information they need. Be sure to target buying keywords as well (review, buy, sale, etc.).

Your reviews must be awesome. Answer every question a prospective buyer might have. Demonstrate you use the product and how the product works. Discuss pros and cons.

I find focusing on promoting one brand on a site works better. In some cases I'll promote 2 or 3 brands if they offer something different. In that case I clearly set out why to buy product A and why buy product B.