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Marketing your website is the most important part of affiliate marketing. You need to let people know that your website exists, but without the expense of TV or Magazine adverts. Firstly, add a line promoting your website to the bottom of your email signature - this will then mean every email you send to someone whether they are friends, family or even your bank will be made aware of your website. The email signature should be something short but tempting, eg if you ran a website about UFO's then you could add;
www.UFOsightings.co.uk - Do you believe?
This signature would entice anyone interested in UFOs to visit your website and find out for themselves as to whether they believe in UFOs or not. That’s it; you have done the hard work - attracting people!
When you think about peoples email habits, it’s easy to see how word of mouth gets around. Have you ever received a funny email which you have then forwarded on to a couple of friends, only for them to forward it on to their friends etc. If you had included an email signature then your website would have been marketed to hundreds of people within a couple of days!
Newsletters are a massive marketing tool, only if used correctly and not excessively. We have all subscribed to newsletters and find some of them interesting right? But do you prefer to receive a newsletter once a month, or would you want them to be clogging up you inbox every day? When you offer people the chance to subscribe to your newsletter, state how regularly you will send it, and stick to it. In your newsletter you can, for example, advertise special offers that your merchants are running - 30% Off UFO Books at Amazon - to help generate additional income.
The four most important things about a newsletter is CONTENT, CONTENT and MORE CONTENT and clear precise instructions on how to unsubscribe or stop receiving it. Nobody likes to receive a newsletter that they no longer want, or is just a list of adverts, and it is possible that it will be reported as spam and be blocked for any future editions.
Search engines will play the biggest part of marketing your website and there are three ways you can go about this exercise. You can submit your website yourself, pay someone to submit it on your behalf or use a package such as Web Position Gold. Ask most website owners, and although it is a long laborious task, it is usually one that most people will opt to do for themselves. You can then guarantee that your website will be placed in the right search engine category and it will also give you an opportunity to visit other websites and see what layout and content is popular.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is extremely important, but as this subject is so big and is constantly changing, we have some helpful links in our Affiliate hints, tips and links page that will explain this subject a lot better. As search engines are becoming cleverer, it is essential that you DO NOT COPY CONTENT from another website, as you will be penalised and may even be banned for future listing.
Linking to other sites will also help attract visitors and increase your Google Page Rank. Before you go sending an email to every website you know asking for a link, do some research first. Only ask for links with other websites where the content is of a similar interest and is likely to appeal to their visitors. It’s no good asking a gardening website for a reciprocal link to your UFO site as they will not be interested. Explain in your email why you have setup your website, and complement them on the design and content of theirs. Have a link to their website before you send an email, as this will show that understand the ethics behind reciprocal linking.
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