So you’ve found a few affiliate programs that seem suitable for your Web business. Each affiliate company offers links and banners that you can easily add to your website. Now what? It’s time to promote your affiliates so you can earn some cash. Perhaps you’re new to the world of online promotion, or at least new to the idea of affiliate promotion. Either way, here are some key ingredients for success that you’ll want to be sure to include in your affiliate marketing.

Pages and Content for Affiliate Programs

Don’t just add a link to your site for affiliates, but add several pages of content geared to promote each program. Affiliate sales are often the toughest to make for two reasons. One, you’re not selling directly to your customers, so you’ll need to give customers a reason to trust and purchase from your recommended affiliate. Two, you have no control over the presentation offered by the affiliate company.

What you do have control over is how you lead your visitors to the affiliate website. Will you send them there blindly and hope the affiliate will do a good job of making the sale, or will you prepare them for a purchase before they ever reach the affiliate’s site? Your affiliate pages should be designed similar to other pages on your site. Include a powerful headline and fresh sales content explaining how the affiliate’s product or service will help your customer. Sell the customer on the idea, but allow the affiliate company to do the closing. Stir curiosity so your visitors will want to learn more about the affiliate’s products.

Each affiliate page should include several links to the affiliate’s site along with keyword-based content focusing on what your affiliate has to offer. The links should be placed strategically throughout the page where readers might come to a place where they’d like to learn more. For example, right in the middle of your presentation, place a link that says, “Go here to take advantage of this offer now, or continue reading below to learn more….” This short little phrase gives the anxious reader an opportunity to jump straight to the offer while the reluctant reader can continue reading.

Another great place for a link is somewhere in your sidebar or main menu if you can squeeze it in. Then place a link at the conclusion of your presentation to persuade readers to visit the affiliate site. If writing several paragraphs of content, include a text link somewhere in the reading where there are keywords about the product or service. An example would be a phrase in the second paragraph that reads, “Learn how to create your own Web pages.” Create a link to the words “create your own Web pages” with the affiliate’s link. Readers are often curious to learn where those text links lead – you’d be surprised at how many people will click right in the middle of reading your offer!

Use New Browser Windows for Linking

Your affiliate links should always open in a new browser window. Why? whether your visitors make a purchase from your affiliate or not, they should be able to easily return to your site. Some visitors might enter your site through the affiliate page from a search engine and never look at your site’s main address. If they click out and can’t remember where or how they found you, then you’ve lost that visitor forever! Opening a new browser window enables the visitor to return to your site if they don’t make an affiliate purchase and possibly buy something else from you directly.

Include Affiliate Marketing in Printed Mailings

Whether you ship a product, mail an invoice, or send a printed sales letter to your customers, include a printed page about your affiliate’s product. Mailings can still get awesome response…even in this age of technology. Ask your affiliates if they can provide printed coupons for the customers you send to their site. Perhaps you’ll send the readers to a page at your site for more information about the affiliate’s products and then link to a “special offer” page. There are a number of ways to offer specials, and your affiliate partner might have some great ideas.

Affiliate programs can provide a lucrative income with the right program and promotional efforts. Make the most of your affiliate promotions using these simple, but powerful marketing techniques.