Your site has to add some value to the equation. What this means is your site has to offer useful content related to the product or service offer. If your site is about gardening and your affiliate offers are for cable TV or some other unrelated product you are unlikley to be successful. On the other hand, if your affiliate offers are related to better gardening products or services then your conversion rate will be much higher.  

In addition affiliate marketing requires allot of web traffic. Generally the conversion rate (people becoming buyers) is low. In order to generate enough buyers to make money you’ll need to bring 150 or more visitors a day to your site. Don’t get discouraged though, there are many people making a decent living from affiliate marketing. Just know that there is much work to do to be successful.

The best tip I can offer is to align yourself with a good affiliate marketing network. An affiliate marketing network is a company that acts as market maker between advertisers who need affiliates and publishers who wish to earn revenue as an affiliate. There are hundreds of these networks, the largest of which are Commission Junction and Clickbank but there are many more that offer great service.

Many affiliate networks offer tips, guiadance and general help to their affiliates. If you are new to affiliate markering it is a good idea to align yourself with a network that provides assistance for becoming successful. Keep in mind that they are not going to train you or hold your hand. If you become to much of a burden on an affiliate manager they will not be so likely to be helpful.

There is plenty of free information on the web to help get you started in the affiliate marketing business. Here are some keywords to use for searching and finding information about this exciting way to earn income.

affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing help, how to become an affiliate marketer – I’m sure you can think of a few others.  

The single most important graphic element on your Website or blog is, without a doubt, your header graphic.

If your site lacks an eye-catching, targeted and topic-specific header graphic, it runs the risk of being ignored by untold numbers of potential clients and readers. But an attention-grabbing, well-designed header graphic does three things that are absolutely essential for your site to survive and thrive:

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1. It lets people know what your site is about instantaneously.

Congratulations, someone has visited your Web site! Now, whether he stays to look around or immediately hits the back button to escape depends largely on your header graphic.

Your header graphic is the first page element your site visitors will see when they arrive at your Web site or blog. An effective header graphic assures site visitors that they have arrived at the correct destination and it confirms that your content or product is exactly what they are looking for.

If your header does not clearly communicate your site’s topic, visitors will leave in search of another site that fulfills their needs and expectations better.

2. It distinguishes your site as professional and authoritative.

Your Web site or blog visitors must trust your expertise, whether you sell a product or relay information, in order for your site to be successful.

A sloppy, fuzzy, boring or poorly designed header graphic indicates amateur site management and will earn you the skepticism of everyone who sees it. A polished, error-free header graphic with clear images, sharp fonts and site-specific art, however, will earn your visitors’ trust because it lends credibility and sophistication to your site.

If your site design looks professional, visitors will expect that you are, too.

3. It brands your site with a unique identity.

Identity recognition is everything when it comes to building a successful business or personal reputation. You want your site visitors to be able to recognize your site next week, next month and next year, even if they only visited it once before.

A strong, unique header graphic combined with a positive user experience at your Web site or blog will ensure that your site visitors never confuse you with someone else. If your header graphic is doing its job, your site will stand out from the crowd and convey the message that visitors can count on you for products, services and information they won’t find anywhere else.

Great Header graphics for your site are essential. Here’s a low cost tool that’s makes it easy to create professional headers for your site or blog!

TIP:  Use the search term “article directories” to find many sites from where you can get free content. Keep in mind one of the requirements for using free articles on your site is that you have to include the author’s resource box. This is no big deal though. The gain you get by providing fresh content far out weighs any impact the author’s resource box may bring.

It can be frustrating finding the right domain name for your business. However there is no need to worry, you can apply these easy tips to come up with a domain name that is pretty darn good and is Search Engine friendly.

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Tips for getting a domain name.

1. Use 2 or more words but do not exceed four. Focus on words that are relevant to your site. Think about the keywords used for the site and how they can be combined.

2. Either combine the words without spaces as in goodmorningtoyou or use dashes “-” between the words as in good-morning-to-you. You can also use underscores as in “good_morning_to_you”. Just keep in mind an underscore is a bit harder to type. 

3. Consider using the domain name with a TLD other than .com. There are many good choices such as .net, .info, .biz .org, .me, .us and many others that are country specific. For folks in the IT business .it is now available. Note:The .it TLD is the country code for Italy but Italy allows anyone to use thier TLD.   

4. Prefix the domain name of choice with words like “the” or “my” or use a postfix word like “store” or “shop” or “online”.

5. Last but not least, many domain names that are already taken are for sale. While this method of getting a good domain name kinda stinks it is in some cases well worth the cost.

Note – There are many other tips for creating a great domain name; this is only an abbreviated short list. Poke around the net, you’ll find lots of good advice.

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There are basically two ways to get website traffic. You can buy it, or you can get it for free. I’ve tried both methods over the years, and although the easiest way to drive traffic to your site is to use Pay Per Click marketing, I don’t recommend it. That’s because if you’re not careful you can spend a fortune buying website traffic and end up with a bad website ROI. I mean why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? However if you prefer the easy way and you have spare money check out…

15 free traffic generation techniques that work:

1. Submit your site to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and to as many other search engines as you can. Before you do this however ensure your site has been properly SEO’d with relevant keywords/phrases.

2. Write 1-2 articles each week for 8 weeks and submit them to the free article directories. Be sure to include a link to your site after each article in the bio box with a link containing the main keyword used for your site. Each article should be optimized with the keywords your site is using.

3. Submit those same articles to email newsletter publishers in your niche. Even if you only get one or two of your articles printed a tremendous amount of traffic can be generated.

4. Find blogs related to your topic and leave useful comments with a backlink to your site.

5. Answer questions related to your site’s topic at answers.yahoo.com. Be sure to put a link to your site in each of your answers.

6. Join a handful of the most popular forums that deal with your site’s topic and become an active poster. Include a link to your site in your signature.

7. Write a press release about your site and submit it to press release sites such as prweb.com. If you are not familiar with press releases, take some time to do a little research: a press release is not written like an article.

8. If you are happy with a product or service you have used, write an unbiased testimonial and trade it for a backlink to your site.

9. Start a blog using WordPress, provide links to your site from each post. Submit the blog to the hundreds of free blog directories. This will get you plenty of quality traffic as long as you keep the blog updated.

10. Post ads with a link to your site on all the free classified ad sites you can find (such as craigslist.org). The best ones will allow you to post a live link. But don’t neglect the other ones. If your ad is well written, people will go out of their way and type your url in their browser. Off course you must post in the appropriate category.

11. Write an interesting email signature that includes a link to your site, and use it with every outgoing business email you send.

12. Start a page on facebook.com and on any other popular social media site you can find, always provide a link so visitors can go to your site. Building a fan base on Twitter is another good way to promote your business and gain traffic. Be sure to offer useful information to your followers and avoid blatant sales. Remember these are for socializing not selling.

13. Submit a video with useful information to YouTube.com, Squidoo.com, etc. You don’t really need any video producing know-how as a simple PowerPoint slideshow with some background music will do the job. Even short videos (3 minutes or less are best) captured with your cell phone camera can be submitted.

14. Search your main keywords on Google and see if you can exchange reciprocal links with related websites that come up in the top results.

15. Write an ebook or a short report (say 10 to 20 pages), or find a product with giveaway rights that you can brand with a link to your site. Then submit it to all the free ebook directories you can find online.

While all this sounds like a full time job, remember, you don’t have to do this all at once. Just pick the traffic item you feel best with and take action. Invest an hour or two daily working that traffic item. Once finished with a traffic item move on to your next favorite technique. If you work diligently at this, over time you will increase the free traffic flow to your site that will dramatically boost your bottom line.

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SEO research and experimentation shows that keyword presence in the URL is an important factor for achieving a high ranking in search engine results (as in front page). By placing keywords in your URL/domain name, you gain a serious presence with search engines. If your URL points to an already established and high-ranked web page, I would not recommend changing it. However, this factor is worth considering when …

you create new pages or sites. Most major search engines favor websites with keywords in the URL; however, remember to use them sensibly and not to abuse them. When optimizing a page for a key phrase, separate keywords in the URL with a hyphen I.E. (www.earn-big-bucks.com/How-to-do-it.html) or an underscore (www.earn_big_bucks.com/How_to_do_it.html), but do not write them as one word. Otherwise, search engines will understand it as a single word (even if the search engine result highlights this keyword in bold), making your work on URL optimization a wasted effort.

Many people use their company name as the URL, while this is good for branding purposes it does no good for SEO. If you wish to use your company name try putting it in the Description Meta Tag.  Search Engines use the text in the Description Tag as the text for displaying in search results. This is a great time and place to display your company name.

Another great place for using your company name is in the page title. Page title is displayed at the top left of the browser and on the page tab of the browser. You can actually display your company name twice! Try to place your main keyword in the page title as well. This gives the visitor confidence they are at a site that is of their interest.

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Google Images has indexed billions of images. If your image can be found for the right keyword, then you will get targeted visitors to your website.Why images can help you to get more visitorsDepending on the search query, Google displays several images above the regular search results. For example, try this search for German Shepherd Dog:The images can be found at the top of the search results and they are linked with web pages. If someone clicks on the image, the person will be taken to the web page that shows the image.How to optimize your images so that they can be found If you have a website about German Shepherd dogs, then wouldn’t it be great if an image from your website was listed above the regular results? You’d get many additional website visitors then. There are several things that you can do to improve the position of your images in Google Image Search: Use a file name that contains the keywords for which you want to be found. In this example, the file name german-shepherd-dog.jpg would be a good idea. Separate the words with a hyphen. Use a descriptive Image Alt attribute text. It usually makes sense to use the same keywords that have been used for the file name. In this example, the Image Alt Attribute would be “German Shepherd Dog”:<img src=”german-shepherd-dog.jpg” alt=”German Shepherd Dog”> In the same way, you should use the Image Title attribute:<img src=”german-shepherd-dog.jpg” alt=”German Shepherd Dog” title=”German Shepherd Dog”> The textual content on the web page before and after the image also impacts the position of your image in Google’s Image Search. In this example, the text “German Shepherd Dog” should appear close to the image. Bigger images seem to get featured more often on Google’s first result page. The bigger your image, the easier it is to get at the top of Google’s regular result page. Include the Width and Height attributes in your image tag to show search engines the size of the image:<img src=”german-shepherd-dog.jpg” alt=”German Shepherd Dog” title=”German Shepherd Dog” width=”600″ height=”400″> Optimize the rest of your web page for the chosen search term. If the complete web page has been optimized for a keyword then it is easier to get good listings for images that are on the page. Make sure the image you optimize with a keyword is attractive and of good quality. If no-one clicks on the image then you won’t get the traffic boost you’re aiming for. Reprint rights provided by Axandra.com – Visit Axandra.com - Copyright Axandra.com – SEO software

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The Title tag may be the single most important aspect of SEO. Your Title should contain your important keywords and those keywords should be as close to the beginning of the Title as possible. Search Engines use the Title tag as the first factor for determining what your site is about. Making it easy for the search engines to figure out what your site is about is what SEO is about.

The Title is also useful to a visitor as it is displayed at the top left hand side of the Browser and on the Browser Tab. The title should be succinct but loaded with your keywords, keeping in mind there is limited display space in the 2 Browser locations mentioned. 

The Description Tag has a lesser value in SEO but on the other hand it has a high value for traffic. The Description is used by most search engines as the text to display in the search results. You should take the time to develop descriptions as an extension of your site marketing. After all it is likely to be the first content or text seen with regard to your site. Think of the Description as a catch all marketing slogan to get searchers to visit your site.