Affiliate Marketing is not “as easy as 1,2,3”. But I guess you know that by now. It needs constant efforts and taking advantage of all the opportunities in order to succeed in a significant manner.
You may have already done some of the things we will talk about here or not; the important thing is to try to use these resources for your benefit in 2011. They can bring you a lot of business:
- Customize your shopping template – build up trust for your visitors by personalizing your shopping cart in order to have the look’n’feel of your website. This will reduce the shopping cart abandons and will increase your visitor-to-customer conversion rate.
As an Avangate affiliate, you can easily customize your template from the special section in the admin interface. - Use automatic tools to populate your site – this is especially important if you have large volumes of information on your website (you have a download portal, a coupon website etc.). Most of the affiliate networks provide data feeds with all product details you need in various formats that you can easily import on your website. This way, you can be sure the information is constantly updated with the latest changes.
Here at Avangate you can also create custom XML data feeds according to your requirements by using filters to narrow the results (e.g. create a data feed with the discount coupons offered by our software vendors). - Create and use discount coupons – convince your customers to buy from you by throwing in an incentive in form of a discount coupon. But don’t think that if you’ve done this, all the customers will flock to your website – you also have to bring some unique value along with that coupon (e.g. a product comparison sheet, a review etc.)
You can generate discount coupons yourself or you can use the ones supplied by the vendors if you’re a member of the Avangate Affiliate Network. - Promote your business via social media – Facebook and Twitter are a must. Promote your deals via social media channels and see the feedback you get from the market. Reach out to millions with a simple tweet / post and create a community around your website. Tell your audience about special deals you have on your website (exclusive bundles, promotions) or about new published reviews.
- Take part in affiliate events – this is the best chance you get for creating new business opportunities with vendors across the globe. Nothing compares to a face-to-face meeting where you can discuss about new partnerships and arrange future deals. Affiliate Summit and A4U Expo are two major events in the affiliate industry that are worth going to.
As a bonus, if you’re an Avangate affiliate, just take a consultation with our Affiliate Doctor – he can offer a few pointers to you for optimizing your affiliate business. Use the live chat feature from the Avangate Control Panel for Affiliates.
So, to wrap this up, first of all be sure your website is attractive to visitors and generates sales; after that, you can go ahead and find new opportunities for it. And don’t forget to constantly test and improve your business.
