Starting a new online business as an Affiliate Marketer can be quite daunting. The “newbie” most of the time believes that a fortune will be landed immediately. To start, you want to squelch the fears and realize there is no business out there that will put fortunes into your pockets, at least immediately. As a new Affiliate Marketer, you must have a map in your hand from start to where you would like to be. In this article, I am suggesting different avenues to drive traffic and to get you close to where you want to be. Remember, these are just some of the ways to drive traffic to your online business as an Affiliate Marketer.
The successful marketer realizes that you need to do have quantity and quality traffic. In other words, you need to drive traffic to your business in high volumes and the potential prospects visiting your website need to be like of mind or interested in what you are presenting. Not having quantity AND quality traffic you will not succeed.
Article Marketing
Article Marketing is not only “free” but is one of the most authoritative and successful ways to drive traffic. If you write your own articles or outsource them, start with articles that you are familiar with the subject that has good content with “hot” keywords (using one word or a long tail keywords). Be informative, you want to have your reader to be able to have confidence in you and see that you are an authority on this subject. Make sure your spelling and information is accurate.
After you feel the article is what you are content with submit it to article sites, such as ezine.com, articlesbase.com, articlegeek.com just to name a few. You can also go to Google to find additional sites for submission.
Blogging
Blogging, one of the hottest methods of driving traffic. It is one of the easiest ways to set up and utilize. Blog about your business and related topics. Branding yourself as an authority in your business will bring people who want to learn about you and your business to the top. You are looking for “like-mind” people who want to join your blog to put input. You will soon see that people are participating in your discussions.
Forums
Forums are another “free” great juncture to drive traffic. If, for example, you are a health buff you may already be a member of a forum full of health enthusiasts. If you are promoting a product for health enthusiasts then you already have your targeted traffic in place. Make sure that you do not sell in your posts in a forum as in articles your profile or resource box is where your information can promote your link. Selling within your forum will most of the time kick you out! Forums are great because just about any subjects you can think of are located there. What you want to do is gain the trust of other members of the forum. Post to the forum with quality answers, if you are interested in a subject but are hesitant about your post research the information before posting. As in blogging and articles, you are getting potential prospects to like and trust you so they will become interested in what you do, who you are and what you have to offer.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is exactly what it says…SOCIAL, keep this in mind. Social Media is NOT Business Media. What you are trying to do is like going to a party, you want to have fun, make friends, and get to know people and then they will get to know you. Always refrain from shoving your business down new friend’s throats. Share common interests with people who think as you do. You can do this by sharing hobby, trip, and favorite sports interests. You want “like-minded” friends. Set up an account and complete a profile page on popular social networking sites for example, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, just to name a few. Be sure you put your picture in the profile; people like to see whom they are communicating with. Eventually your new friends will ask you want you do.
Videos
Videos are another free marketing tool. As article marketing, you can get a subject across to many prospects. People love to look at videos and so does Google. You can make a short video about a business related topic using keywords or keyword phrases. Always include the keywords, description and tags. A must is to include a link to your website in the description of your video. Today most macs and pcs include a video application such as iMovie or Moviemaker. For uploading, your videos try YouTube, movavi.com, video.yahoo.com, photobucket.com to name a few. Have fun!
These are only a few of the traffic driving sources out of approximately 50+ sources. I would suggest getting comfortable with these and then research additional traffic driving sources and incorporate them. Start with the free options and as your business grows and you have the funds to add, “funded advertising” do so.
