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1. Never,
ever spam. There are too many better ways to get the word out there. Most
people never even read spam and now the Internet Service Providers are
starting to crack down on those who spam. You can get locked out of major
ISPs like AOL and you'll be the loser. You'll never earn the respect of
your peers or your potential customers by spamming. |
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2.
Search Engine Optimization - This is the best way to get new
traffic. Learn everything you can about optimizing your site.
Also, click here for a list of companies that specializes in
Search Engine Optimization.
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3. Read everything you can get
your hands on about meta tags and key words. This will help you immensely
when it comes to search engine positioning. A good place to start is How
Stuff Works. A wealth of information on 'How To' for everything. |
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4. Read the Fine Print - there
are some very unscrupulous merchants out there who don't care whether YOU
make money or not. Always read agreements before placing your links. |
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5. Don't use too many pop ups or pop unders. They are annoying to
your visitors and many people are buying software programs to stop
the pops! Those who turned off by pops may not revisit your
website. And you may be rejected by some programs who don't care
for a site with too many of these pests. |
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6. Join
A Best Web -
A forum for Affiliates, Affiliate Managers and
Merchants. Ask questions and get answers. Pick their brains. They'll
help you. A Best Web is the fastest growing affiliate
marketing discussion board with over 20,000 members and participating networks including
Commission Junction, LinkShare, Be Free, Share a Sale and
FineClicks and merchants like Tiger Direct, Overstock, GoCollect,
JCWhitney and many others are active participants.
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7. Get
your own domain. Many "Free" domain sites include their
own advertising and there's a limit to how much room you can use.
Many merchants will not allow affiliates with free domains into
their programs. It's much more professional to have your own
domain names. There are many places to register your domain
name.
Click
here
for a list of Domain Registration sites. |
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8. Get reliable web hosting. You can get cheap hosting but, remember,
as Mama always said "You get you pay for" and you
can't make money if your site is down. Make sure you get a web
hosting plan that comes with good support. Click
here for our recommendations.
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9. Your web hosting package
should come with a site counter but if not, get one that gives you a lot of information.
Find one that gives you stats for the hour, day, week, month
and year. You also need information on the referring
website and your visitors' search words were. It gives you
invaluable information and, when used properly, will give you ideas and
understanding of the public is looking for. |
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10.
Don't use any more banners than you absolutely need. Keep your page clean
and easy to navigate. Make sure all your hyperlinks work. Banners impede your download time and many visitors will exit out before
ever seeing your website if the wait is too long. And unless
you are selling stuff for babies and kids, stay away from little duckies and little teddy bear pictures. Try to keep a
corporate feel to your pages. Don't clutter it up with cutesy
pictures that are unnecessary. |
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11. Don't use music on your site.
There is nothing more annoying than trying to navigate through a site and
having to listen to the webmaster's choice of music for the day. I've
exited out of many sites because I didn't want to listen to "Beethoven's
Fifth" or the 15th playing of "Jingle Bells". Everyone has
their own tastes, don't push yours on them. Unless your website is
about Beethoven, it's better to nix the music! |
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12. Don't use backgrounds that are
flashy, that move, that are too bright or dark. This will take away from
the information on your website. And if it's too irritating to the eyes,
the visitor will just exit out. There are many websites out there to go to
that are more pleasing to the eyes. No one wants to get a headache from
looking at your 3D background. |
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13.
Don't affiliate yourself with Merchants that allow the use of
Gator, WhenU, Ebates or any other Parasites.
These programs steal your commissions even though a visitor has
clicked through your site and makes a purchase. Always ask
the merchant's stance is on parasites before you put them on your
site. A good place for more information on Parasiteware is A Best Web. They have a forum dedicated to stopping the Parasites!! |
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14.
Learn as much as you can about HTML before you start. There are
many programs available that will make the process easier.
There's Microsoft FrontPage, DreamWeaver and more. But, you will
never regret knowing something about HTML for when it's
necessary. Click
Here for Web Creation Software |
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15. Have a privacy policy in place.
Assure your visitors that you won't sell any information about them to a
third party. This will ease their minds to know that you care enough about
them to post a privacy policy. Also, some merchants won't approve an
affiliate if they have no privacy policy posted on their site. |
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16. Check out the Merchant's website
before you place the links. A merchant that has their 800 number plastered
all over their Homepage will not convert well for you. There are
many merchants with the same products that don't post their 800
everywhere. |
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17. Start a newsletter. There's
nothing better to keep in contact with your Opt In visitors than a smartly
worded newsletter. You can build a loyal customer base with a good
newsletter. Don't try to hard sell. Give them plenty of options to choose
and send them only they want to hear about. Don't send them
information they didn't opt in for no matter how good a deal you think it
is. This is a milder form of spam. |
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18. When checking out a Merchant's
website, click on a few links and see information you get. There are
some websites that have links to adult pages, with pop ups and more. You
can get booted from other merchants if they find out any of your links go
to Adult sites, even through a third party. It's important to know with
whom you are dealing. |
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19.
Subscribe to
Revenue Magazine!
It
is the first publication devoted entirely to the world of affiliate
marketing. It brings you interviews with industry stars, site-building
strategies, technology tips, marketing know-how and much more -- all
geared to increasing your earnings and effectiveness as an affiliate.
You'll read about great programs, affiliates who've generated big incomes,
ways to optimize your site on the search engines, how to keep track of
your finances, and everything else you need to know to create sites that
succeed! Subscribe
now! |
