How to Generate Free Traffic to Affiliate Sites – For Newbies
Gone are the days, when an individual website could stand tall in the information superhighway on its own two-feet! Today, websites need to promote themselves in more ways than one. This is the crux of the affiliate marketing process that allows websites to attract more traffic through an affiliate site.
Advertisers pay their affiliates based on the kind of traffic that flows in through the latter’s connected site, or the number of clicks that actually transform into a purchase. So, for an advertiser / company / entrepreneur promoting their products / services / content on the web, the mantra for increasing this traffic is by tying up with affiliates. If you have a website or a blog and the will to succeed, affiliate marketing can be a lucrative career option for you. As an affiliate, the more traffic you generate for the merchants you have tied up with, greater is your revenue.
The big question that arises then is how to generate traffic. Well there are several ways to do so including free and paid advertising methods. As a newbie affiliate starting out in the business, it is a good idea to start with the free traffic generation methods, as you may not have a huge budget at the start for the paid options.
How to Generate Free Traffic to Affiliate Sites -A Newbie Guide
So which are those must-follow strategies of traffic generation to your affiliate site for 2014? Let’s find out!
1. Find the Right Partnerships
Experimenting with different merchants will bring much needed success for affiliates. But ensure that these merchants are related to your website niche and to each other. For instance, if you are a website promoting real estate, it would be great to promote offers not from the biscuit or chocolate industry, but definitely from banks, construction, architects and security agencies who would want your web platform to drive traffic to their sites. It thus makes sense to first understand your niche, and try to promote several merchants in the same and related niches!
2. Your Content Still Matters
The reason why a merchant would select your website over another competitor is because you have good content that brings audiences to your website. While the rules of setting up a successful and profitable online business might have changed down the years, fact is that meaningful content that appeals to your audience is still the king! You might be tempted to include the right keywords to occupy top spots on the search results page. While this is not a bad idea, writing only for search engines (and not your audience) will not bring in traffic. Only quality and useful content will bring in people and with people come the clicks.
3. Get Algorithm Friendly
Google should be the bible for affiliates this year to generate traffic to their sites! In fact, Google algorithms are the buzzwords, which define the SEO environment in today’s dynamic online landscape. While keeping pace with the ever changing algorithm scenario can often be difficult, it makes sense to adopt some important changes in your keyword selection to keep up with Google.
In today’s complex algorithm profile, its best to stick to long tail keywords that best define the products / services you are promoting and bring out its unique feature. Let’s say your key product is a butter-filled biscuit laden with choco-chips. By using the keywords ‘delicious butter biscuits’, chances of getting top spot in the search rankings will be next to nil. Get as specific as possible to get traffic.
4. Don’t go Overboard!
That’s right, you might have great website, with lots of traffic and a great affiliate marketing strategy, but don’t go overboard with advertising banners! Believe it or not, but animated banners and scrolls are the number one cause of annoyance among web users and a prime reason why they often choose to sign out fast. If this happens too many times, be assured that you will gradually lose your audience and with it your affiliate revenue.
5. Increase Audio and Voice Presence
While content is still king, the smart thing to do is not crowd your website with too much written material. Instead, make use of audio and video elements to generate curiosity and expect instant feedback. You can also put audio and video links to merchant websites. Audio and video, say experts work better when selling through the net, because they explain the worth of the service or product more powerfully than mere words.
6. Email Promotions
A good way to reach out to more people in affiliate marketing is to use the power of emails. Identify your target audience and develop an effective email communication that will not be trashed, but which will instead, compel the user to read the material and visit the merchant’s website. The first step to initiating a successful email campaign is to build a subscriber list using a killer landing page.
7. Don’t sell Everything to Everybody
The number one rule to creating a successful affiliate website that attracts tons of traffic is finding the niche audience from the huge number of people out there, and approaching them with targeted messages. These are the visitors to the website, who can be prospective buyers in future. The idea therefore is to reach out to probable customers through the kind of information they are seeking. Affiliates therefore need to stay updated on different events and news and advertise products/ services accordingly.
For instance, if you are trying to sell an expensive property during times of recession, it is sure to be a failure! Staying updated on real time events related to your niche is a good way to increase traffic to the site.
8. Offer Bonuses
Offer something extra to your customers, which your competitors are forgetting, maybe! It could be an added bonus, a free subscription or a gift sent to the customer, etc. No matter what you choose, it should be customized according to the product/concept/service you are selling and it should match customer expectations. Remember, a freebie works only when it is actually useful to the target audience.
9. Increase the Breadth of Partnerships
Review your affiliate partnerships and rehash them according to the trends in the market. It is therefore essential to keep the communication with partners alive, and look out for more meaningful partnerships to increase your affiliate earnings over time
Have you used any of these ‘free’ strategies to generate traffic? We would love to hear from you.
No comments:
Post a Comment