3 Steps you need to take to set up your affiliate business

For anyone starting out for the first time online, the question is where do I start and what are the key steps I need to take to succeed? Well there is no magic formula, but you will need time, determination and some investment dollars to get started. This is a real business that requires an attitude that you run it like a real business. Once you’ve made the decision to research and launch your product/service to your target market, what are some key steps you must make to move forward?

Set Up a Web Site Properly

Whether you design one yourself, get someone to design one for you or use a template provided by your host or blog provider, you need a place to do business. That place will be your Web site and domain you have registered and paid for.

To register a domain name you will need to go to a service that does just that. Names that come to mind are NameCheap, and GoDaddy but there are many more. Once you have a domain name, you need a place to put it and that’s when you go to a hosting site. Names here are Hostgator, Bluehost, again these are only two, but there are many more. Just make sure that you avoid the free sites. They are not as reliable as those that are fee based.

With your domain registered and hosting set, you will need to put up web pages for your product/service offering. One key tactic is to make sure that you use separate and unique web pages to sell and promote each product or service you are offering. That means registering a separate domain name for each item you are selling with a dedicated sales page outlining the details of benefits and solutions to problems for your customers. The reason for this is that you want your potential customer to focus on one thing only, your offering and the decision to buy.

You should always include product reviews and information that will let your customers get a good understanding of how the purchase will solve their problem. Testimonials of satisfied customers go a long way towards demonstrating to your prospects the benefits they will reap when they decide to buy. All of these items, product descriptions, product review and testimonials can be combined on your sales page, followed by a clear call to action.

On a separate page, you can offer articles that you have written that highlight the benefits and uses that your customers have received as a result of their purchase.

Make sure your copyrighting makes effective use of headlines that attract and entice the readers to want to learn more and continue with the final purchase decision.

Attract Customers: Offer Bonuses and Freebies

Offer bonuses and free reports to your potential customers. Carefully position the offerings where they cannot be missed, usually at the top of the page. You will need to follow up each offer with a well crafted email message from you. You will have received your potential customer’s name and email message from a sign-in form on your Web page. This entire system will be automated on an autoresponder service you have joined as part of your business set up process. Aweber and Getresponse are two that come to mind.

Common wisdom is that you need to contact a lead at least seven times before a buy decision is made. Your messages will be designed to address the need or problem that drove them to your Web page to begin with, so you should make sure the content of the message stays focused on your customer’s need.

Keep the “selling” out of the messages and concentrate on the benefits and satisfying outcome. Make your subject lines reflect how things will get better if they decide to buy. Avoid the use of the word “free,” many spam filters look for that word and push any content with it into the spam trash. Your goal is to make your potential customer anxious to get your product with a sense of urgency.

Quality not Quantity: Qualified Traffic

There is traffic and then there is qualified traffic. You want people who are targeted to really want your product or service because they see you as the solution to their problem. One way to attract targeted traffic is to write articles for publication in ezines or e-reports. You can publish in publications that focus on your target customers and who are more apt to respond to your offerings.

Get on a schedule and write at least 2 articles per week. They should be 300-600 words in length and be easy to read; no jargon or tech talk. If you can attract 100 targeted customers a day as a start, you will begin to build momentum. Over time with the cumulative effect of your articles, you will build to 1000 targeted hits a day. According to accepted practice, if 10% of those leads buy your offering, you will have 10 sales per day. That is a very good result and one that will lead to greater momentum moving forward.

Conclusion

What is outlined here are 3 practical steps that will get your business up and running. What it takes on your part is time, effort and some investment of your hard earned cash. Once you have achieved results for one product line, it simply takes repetition to try it out again with another one. At that point you are off and running.

Try these tips and your chances of success are very good indeed. May your travels be prosperous.