When the majority of people first start affiliate marketing they either post the affiliate links as they are or create a micro blog on Squidoo, hubpages or one of the other micro blogs and then these micro blogs either get taken down for spamming and advertising or people view them and don’t regard them as a legitimate professional website.

As domain names are very cheap to purchase, even for a .com it’s only $7.69 per year with Godaddy and a coupon. With a domain name you have two options you can automatically redirect from the domain name through your affiliate link to the product website or you can create and establish a website for promoting the product. I think one of the most effective ways of using a domain is to get some hosting, very cheap at $2-5 per month try Doreo, Hostgator or Godaddy. With this establish a review style website where you would review the product your trying to sell and two or three competitive products in which you would give them a lower rating than your main product. Then link to your main product through your affiliate link.

2. Building your own Email list

You may of heard the phrase “the money is in the list” well this has been proven time and time again. The benefits of email lists and email marketing is very clear. So why not start building your own email list from the start of your affiliate marketing career.

Real businesses concentrate on repeat custom instead of one off sales this is because after a customer has purchased once they are easier to convert in to another customer for another product or service. Repeat custom is very important in both online and offline business and a good way to get repeat custom is through communication, the development of a relationship.

You can create an email list to communicate with your target consumer, send them free information or tools, make them trust you, respect you and then you will be able to sell stuff to them with ease.

One of the best ways to build an email list is to offer an incentive for subscribing such as a short report or a free tool. When someone subscribes you automatically send them the download link to the free goodies.

3. Build traffic to your own website and list

Using what we mentioned in the previous two numbers we can develop a professional, established business which people will take seriously. With this you are not only building a business but also building a brand. By doing this you can create repeat custom and build a brand alongside, you can market to your customers again and again.

Do not overlook this point because when you send someone through an affiliate link you have lost the opportunity to build a relationship with this person, you have lost the opportunity to market to them again and again.

There are many ways to build traffic to a website such as forums, article marketing, bum marketing, video marketing, viral marketing, web 2.0 and so on.  My advice is to pick one main traffic generation method and to focus on this for several weeks or months until you perfect this technique then move on to another.

For traffic generation techniques please visit: Marketing Articles