How to Promote Affiliate Programs

Now if you think that you can just sign up as an affiliate and you'll automatically earn big commision checks, you're dead wrong. If you never promote the affiliate programs you signed up for, you'd be very lucky to earn a dime.

Here are 4 surefire ways to promote your affiliate programs:

1. Put text links and banners on your web site - Text links always work better than banners. So, be creative. If you think the text links you are given by your affiliate programs will not sell, rewrite those text links. Do not change the code. Change the message. Remember this: the upper, the better. Most people do not usually scroll far down the web pages. They like to read what's on the top part, especially in the top left.

So, be smart about wording and location.

2. Write articles and submit them to as many article directories as possible - Without traffic, you're nothing. You've got to attract people your way. The easiest way to do so is to write some articles about the product you're promoting. Then at the end of the article, include a writer's resource box with your web site's short description. By the time the visitors get to your page, they'd already be convinced you're an expert and tend to believe you when you say, 'Buy it. It's that good!'

Don't know how to write articles? Staring blank in front of your monitor? Try this amazing 30-Minute Article Writing System. This will get you writing in no time.

The key here is after writing some useful articles, you've got to submit them (either by hand or software) to as many article directories as possible, especially the bigger ones like GoArticles, EzineArticles, ArticleCity, iSnare, ArticleDashboard, Kokkada, ArticleAlley, BeezyMouse, ArticleFever, ArticlesBase, and ArticleCube.

Good news is if you're lazy like me, you don't have to waste time submitting your articles by hand. You can save time using softwares like Instant Article Submitter. 

3. Pay-per-click advertising - The most popular pay-per-click program is Google Adwords. You can buy clicks at around 10 cents per click at Google. You may also want to look at Yahoo Search Marketing and other pay-per-click advertising companies like Clicksor, Bidvertiser, SearchFeed, Miva, ABCsearch, Kanoodle, ePilot, and Findology. When you pay for traffic, make sure you are making profits. You can choose to send your visitors to your web site or directly to your affiliate programs.

4. Start a newsletter - If your web site does not have a newsletter, now it's the best time to start one. Drive traffic to your web site as much as possible (One way to do this is by exchanging links with as many webmasters as possible -- You can find these interested webmasters at sites like LinkPartners). Then start collecting subscribers.

Remember that growing your subscriber base is the key to growing both your business and your affiliate income. Set up autoresponders to send out emails to your subscribers. From time to time, write them useful articles and tips about things that may interest them. In your email messages, you can advertise any affiliate programs you choose. These people are your subscribers. You'll have a greater chance of selling.