'Building Affiliate 'Super Sites' to Stand Out from the Crowd

Affiliate Programs - 7 Red Hot Tips For Affiliates
We often get asked by affiliates about how to successfully deal with affiliate .....

One mistake new affiliate marketers make time and again is thinking that
their 'product' is the merchant's product.

While one can certainly view their business from this perspective, it puts
you in the mindset of 'pushing the link', rather than building a relationship
with potential customers.

Super successful affiliates understand that their job is not to sell, but to
presell ' and their real product is content.

Let's look at this from a customer's viewpoint to see why building a

Why I Don't Speak In Tongues - Part I

The Pentecostal or Charismatic movement has as one of it central beliefs, that men and women .....

content-focused and interactive site is so powerful, and why this type
of site can radically boost your commissions.

1. Shopping and Connecting

When the average shopper goes online, he or she is likely to have a list of

Marketing Communications
The descriptions search engines offer when displaying
search results are generally retrieved from two
sources:

a) the displayed page's .....

trusted sites already in mind. This is particularly true for certain classes of
products in the tangible goods marketplace.

However, there is a large pool of potential customers seeking information
and doing research before they buy. These may be first-time internet
shoppers ' or they may fall into a special interest group and have a lot of
comparision shopping to do before they make a decision.

These are the customers you can draw to your site with quality content.

But I would like to recommend you go one step beyond just linking up
some articles or putting up a newsletter. Instead, build a site that creates
a sense of community.

In other words, provide a place where people can connect with their
interests and with each other. Why'

Simple: Any site that creates a sense of support is going to generate trust,
spawn word-of-mouth referrals and attract repeat visitors. Your site
becomes a 'hub' or 'authority' on a subject, making it an ideal 'jumping off
point' in the buying process.

It's like shopping with friends. There's safety in numbers. There is also
much more activity where ideas are shared freely. Not only that, a
customer-focused, interactive site allows you to collect feedback and
quickly adjust to the needs of your target market.

2. Designing a Community

Setting up this type of site is no more difficult than setting up a static
content site ' it just requires a little more advanced planning.

What you need:

- Structured content
- Message board system
- Newsletter
- Multiple related affiliate products

This affiliate site model relies on having multiple products to promote within
your niche. For example, let's say you've chosen 'The South Beach Diet'

Credibility: Why Your Site Needs It, And How To Get It
Why should anyone buy from your website' Despite the acceptance of Internet shopping on a larger scale, many people are still .....

as your niche.

In your profit model, you would have a selection of products like the
following: a south beach diet e-book, a south beach diet recipes e-book,
a recommended merchant for supplements or vitamins and so on.

Your content should be structured around beginning, intermediate and
advanced topics related to the diet. Your newsletter content will cover
these topics as well, but with an enhanced focused on recommended
'solutions', ie, your affiliate products. Of course, your affiliate links will be
sprinkled throughout the online content as well.

Now, here's where a clever tactic comes in. You set up a message board
for customers who have purchased your recommended products through
your link. Their ability to create usernames and participate on the forum is
dependent on them mailing you their ......