The difference is that with affiliate products, you aren't just competing against similar products within the marketplace. You are also competing with other affiliates selling the same program.



Although you don't need a website to market affiliate programs, it helps because some sites won't accept promotional materials that link directly to affiliate products.

You may solve this problem by building a simple one page subscription site. This allows you to build your list and recycle your traffic.

Below are seven of the best ways to market affiliate programs online:

1. Writing articles

Article writing is my favorite technique for marketing. Although I've marketed my business using many different techniques over the years, this is the one that continues to drive traffic to my sites long after I've written the article.

To get the most from article writing, give your readers a taste of the product. This doesn't mean writing about the product; that's a review. Create several bullet points from the product to demonstrate what it does.

For example, if you are selling a product on affiliate marketing, your bullet points might be on how to set up an affiliate business in 7 days.

2. Free Classifieds

There are still a few really effective free classified ad sites online. The key ingredient here is to follow the rules of the site and write a good ad.

3. Blogging

Blogging allows you to overcome the problems involved in not having a website. Most article directories will accept a link to a blog, even if it's on a site like Blogger or Wordpress.

Other advantages to blogging are: high search engine rankings and the ability to promote multiple products through product reviews, building new streams of income for you.

4. Search engine optimization

If you do decide to build a website, search engine optimization is essential. You want to use the best possible keywords related to your site so the traffic to your site is targeted. Submit your site to the major search engines and get indexed faster by using sitemaps.

5. Web 2.0 (Social Marketing, Video Marketing, Bookmarking)

Social marketing actually includes multiple techniques, like bookmarking, marketing on sites like Facebook and MySpace, and videos.

With these types of sites it is really easy to market because you don't need a website. You may link to your affiliate site.

Video sites make it easy for you to promote affiliate programs because you can create video tutorials for the products you sell, increasing the value of the product.

6. Forums

Forums have been around for a long time, and they're still a good choice for marketing affiliate products.

What's important is to read the guidelines for the affiliate program. You don't want to make posts about the products you are promoting. Where articles allow you to promote in the resource box, forums allow you to promote in the signature file. Just make sure the forum you are posting on allows affiliate products in the signature.

7. Pay Per Click

Pay per click techniques are the fastest way to get traffic. It only takes about 15 minutes once you've posted your ad.

Because this is a paid technique, it's important to track your conversion. This means testing your ads to make sure they are working.

Regardless of which of these techniques you choose, the real secret to marketing is to choose one technique, master it, and use it consistently to promote.