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When it comes to making money on the internet, you need two main things. Traffic and sales. We’ll go over conversions in a later post but for now let’s cover affiliate marketing traffic sources.
As an affiliate marketer you need traffic bottom line and in some cases, you will need tons of it. There are two types of traffic sources, free and paid. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. And it can depend on what your market is.
One thing we always teach our clients is to build a foundation or a framework first. And then add more to your plan.
Also, one of the most important things you should always strive to do is build your email list. Because your list will become another source of traffic in it’s own right. It is an on demand traffic source. Also, if you get traffic from seo, your list can always save you in the event any of your websites receive a Google or search engine penalty.
So let’s talk about each traffic source from free and paid.
Free Traffic
Free traffic for affiliates is just that, free. However, it really does come at a price and that is time. It takes time to build but can be totally worth it in the end.
However, you need to value your time. Remember time is money.
So, here are the free traffic sources that are worth it.
SEO
Seo is a great free traffic source. Many will tell you it’s not but, that’s not true. The reason it’s so good is people are actively looking for what you are selling or the information you provide. This is why we highly recommend every affiliate start a website.
You will need many keyword articles to make it worth it but it can and does usually pay off in the end. You will also need proper keyword research for each article when you start out.
Seo, is a long term strategy. You can do other things like ppc or social while you are waiting for your search traffic to take off. Learn all you can about seo because it pays off eventually.
And, dont become frustrated if it takes time. Just keep working because it can take as long as two years to finally see good results.
Link Building
While building links usually goes hand in hand with SEO, it also enough to stand on it’s own if done right. Also, if you do care about your seo, you will have to be mindful of Google while building links.
But, when building links we are not talking about blasting crap all over the internet. We are talking about getting relevant links that will build traffic also. Think about it for a minute. The world wide web is nothing more than a collection of links.
In fact, back in the early days of the web, this is how website got traffic. This is also how the great link builder Eric Ward prefers to receive traffic. And he gets a huge amount of it from links more that from seo. But, he does it right so he also ranks for highly coveted terms like “link building expert“.
The reason he does is he build good links from relevant places. So, people coming to his website from a link will actually care about his website when they land on it.
And don’t be afraid of a “no follow” link either. While there is speculation building too no follow links can hurt your search rankings, a nicely placed no follow can bring tons of relevant traffic.
You can also trade links if you like. Google webmaster guidelines says not to do excessive link exchanges. So make sure to only exchange links with your very best link prospects.
You also don’t want your site crowded with links that will send traffic away.
Link building does not seem like a very cutting edge online marketing strategy but, it works and can bring tons of traffic over time if you work at it and do it right.
Included in link building are also comment links. These are find as long as they are relevant, helpful and you don’t over do them.
Guest Posting & Article Marketing
Article marketing can still be a great strategy but you have to do it different these days. This is also where guest posting comes in. Really guest posting is just a form of article marketing.
So, if you want to brand yourself and are writing articles for article directories, we suggest adding your brand name in the article and in your author box and not your link. This way you can post pretty much as you like and if done right, you will start to see your direct traffic rise.
While it’s still not a bad idea to add your link in an article directory. If you do we suggest do not use any keywords, especially if the link is a do follow. But, even if it’s a no follow link still use your brand name.
Guest posting is another form of link building. But it can help your search traffic when done correctly.
When looking for guest posting opportunities, only choose good mostly highly relevant sources. Use Majestic seo to check the trust flow of a website and really only use a site with a trust flow over 10. We suggest choosing a trust flow of over 20 however, as an optimal choice.
Don’t always link to your home page either. Have something like a good infographic made, post it to your site and build guest posts to it. This will allow you more guest posting opportunities also.
You don’t always want links pointing to your home page. Building links to a high tier page will allow link juice to flow on to your home page.
There are other ways to build free traffic but these are our top quality choices.
Paid Traffic Sources
Paid traffic allows you to get traffic fast. But, if you don’t know what you are doing you could be broke real fast. So here are a few tips for the affiliate marketer.
While seo traffic goes to your website, you will usually want to send paid traffic to a landing page. This can be a little hard to get away with Google these days. But if you use a service such as Unbounce you can add your landing pages as a sub domain to your site and usually use that page to capture leads.
You can use paid traffic sometimes to send people directly to your website sometimes, however, you must always be tracking conversions and see if it is working. You can do this especially if you have an E commerce website. Always be tracking and testing.
Pay Per Click
everyone usually starts with Adwords because it gets the most traffic. However, there is a pretty good learning cycle. Always get some kind of training before you attempt adwords.
Also check out other ppc companies such as 7Search and see if it fits your business model.
YouTube Traffic
YouTube is also another form of paid traffic you can use. All it takes is a short video and using paid Youtube ads via Google adwords.
Facebook Ads
Using Facebook ads is another great way to get traffic as an affiliate. However, we suggest most Facebook traffic be sent to a landing page where you collect emails. Sure, if can work for other things too. But, you will need to test things out and always watch how much you are spending and profiting.
Pay Per View Traffic
Pay per view traffic is also another great source for affiliates. Again, this is usually best sent to try and build your e mail list.
Summary
There are many ways to get traffic as an affiliate. When using paid you have to watch your budget and when trying free methods you have to be mindful of your time. Either way, you need to work to get something done.
Always start with a plan in mind and build upon that business plan. You can always add traffic sources later on.
Also understand that traffic is really not your problem. Conversions are the other problem most affiliate marketers have. Always try to get people on your email list first and sell to them second.
