Any of us that have been in the affiliate marketing arena for any length of time know how highly competitive the affiliate marketing niche can be. It seems like you have to have a crystal ball at your disposal to stay one-step head of the competition posse. One of the obvious goals if you are to be successful in affiliate marketing is to target a niche where you have a better than even chance of gaining a profitable share of your target market!
You have to use every ounce of magic in your bag of tricks to encourage your prospects to not only visit your site but also get them to click on your affiliate link. Once you get them to take that action, the ball is out of your hands in most instances. Once they are on the merchant site you are banking on the sales copy of the merchant being compelling enough to close the sale for you. I would much prefer to play the affiliate marketing game with the ball in my hands before and after a possible sale.
Even today, I visit so many affiliate websites that are not even trying to capture the email address of their visitors, why??? I believe it’s because we have so many “instant gratification affiliates” in our midst today. They want their commission and they want it now. They are children of the microwave society and they have become microwave affiliates! They harbor illusions of getting rich quick with their affiliate business with as little work as possible.
Building a list is one of the most fundamental aspects of being an affiliate marketer. It is the absolute best way to gather prospects that are interested in what you have to offer. You can offer a subscription to a niche newsletter, or, better yet, offer incentives to your prospects to subscribe to your newsletter. Offer value to your prospect by providing them with access to software, ebooks, exclusive services or other value added freebies that will be helpful to them in their quest to be successful or have their problem solved.
And guess what? If your prospect signs up for your newsletter and then leaves your site to click on that affiliate link, it doesn’t matter quite as much if that merchant doesn’t close the deal for you this time. You’ll have a subscriber in the fold that you can market to again and again and again.
