Content is King

Looking through the universe of online affiliate marketing, you’ll notice that most sites fall into two categories. There are sites that simply have a list of links to other sites that sell products. You’ll notice that these sties come up often in web searches on Google or Yahoo, but they don’t seem very useful since all they have is other links and no actual content of their own.

The other kind of affiliate site is the kind that you want. It is a site that has all the same links that the others do, but it also has content. Now, what does “content” mean, anyway? Content is simply an internet term that means articles or information on a web page. Why do affiliate sites that use content work better than those that don’t? It’s simple.

If you click on a site, say, a site about growing roses, which would you rather find? A list of links that you have no idea if they are any good or not or if they even link to a reputable company? Or an informative, well-written article about growing roses that has a link at the bottom for a company that, while you still don’t know if they are trustworthy or not, the person who wrote this content thinks so and they sure sound like they know what they are talking about. Which one do you think does better sales every month? Exactly. The site that uses articles.

This is the number one reason why you should be knowledgeable about the products you wish to sell. It will be a million times easier to write content that sounds like it was written by an expert if you know your way around your product. If a web surfer stumbles upon your site, finds your articles well-written, informative and fun and then sees a link to buy a product related to the article, your chances of making money off of that customer go up 100 times. The big secret to affiliate marketing isn’t a magic formula or miracle catchphrase. It’s well-written content.

There are even companies out there that will write content for you, for a small fee. It may seem like a silly thing to invest in on the surface, but once you see the hard numbers that show how much better affiliate sites do with content then without, you’ll be on board in no time flat.

One of the great things about the Internet is how it works as a complete reference. The encyclopedia, the dictionary, the White and Yellow pages and even maps have all become antiquated with the invention of the Internet. How can this help you, the new affiliate marketer? It’s easy. The big money in affiliate marketing is found in niche marketing.

Before we get into it, what exactly is niche marketing? Niche marketing is marketing to a particular group instead of the public at large. Now, on the surface, this sounds a bit strange. Don’t you want EVERYONE to buy from your website? Of course you do, but making a site that appeals to everyone and writing web content to sell your product that appeals to everyone is impossible. That’s where niche marketing comes in. You pick a product, say, Hickory Farms meats and cheeses and you do your best to market these products. When you take on a niche product, you have to ask yourself a series of questions.

• Who is going to buy my product? Well, if you’re selling Hickory Farms products, chances are you won’t be selling to many teenagers. Your market is going to skew older, so you want to write copy that is going to appeal to an older audience. Hold off on the slang, the off-color jokes and the pop-culture references.

• What benefits does my product have? In this case, Hickory Farms is a company that has been making quality products for generations. You can play up the history aspect, you can play up the quality aspect. You can even play up the holidays aspect, since they are a company that always seemed to peak during the holidays. Every product out there, every single one, has a list of benefits you can highlight. Make sure you know them and make sure you tell your customers all about them.

• Do I know enough about this product to write new, interesting content about it every few weeks? This is the BIG question. If you’re passionate about Hickory Farms and you love their products, then you should feel confident that yes, you can write a new article about their product line every few weeks. If you agreed to participate in an affiliate program only because the commission was high and you don’t know thing one about the product you’re selling, you might want to rethink your choice.

While niche marketing may sound a bit odd on the surface, it really is the way to go. Making your site focused and concentrating your energy on a particular group will make it seem more legitimate and you can count on better business in no time flat.

The simplest way to make money online working only a few short hours a week is to build a web site packed with content. So much content that once you've made a web surfer land on your web site, they will have to come back for more again and again. Content rules supreme on the new Internet!

So where do you find a lot of it and for very little money? Well, you actually have quite a few options here. There are many article directories and many web site owners that will actually let you use their content as long as you keep the resource box intact. If you are new and you have just joined your first web master affiliate program, that's the best way to go about it.

Free resources are easy to find and will really help you kick-start your business and earn money faster than you otherwise would if you were to write everything by yourself. Of course you will have to write some original content every now and then and the more you do the better your web site will be rated. It's good to have something new to add each week, even when you don't have time or inspiration.

Another way to add new content is by using Private Label Content articles or PLC. PLC generally refers to articles, ebooks and manuals that are free for subscribers to use as they wish. There are a few restrictions, however: you cannot claim copyright to PLC, or submit it to article sites, unless you change the content significantly. Unlike free articles directories, you will have to pay a subscription fee.

They have the very important advantage that you don't have to add a resource box, which always points to some other web site that can steal your prospective customers. You will probably get 10 to 40 new articles a month, depending on the market niche you are interested in. And these articles can really get you going and make some money with the Internet marketing affiliate program you've joined.

How can you use them to make the most of them? If you have a hard time building mailing lists for your marketing campaigns then you can try to see if they would be more attracted to sign up for a 6 month long weekly course, which can be entirely comprised of PLC articles.

And one last thing for you to thrive on the Internet marketing arena, don't use web site templates! I know free stuff is great and easy to find on the internet and I know there are tens of thousands of different web site templates out there, but they will not help you advance your business. You need to think out of the box, you need to be creative and you need to differ from any other web site your customers may see while searching for what they want to buy.
 

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