How To Boost Your Affiliate Sales With Free Articl

How To Boost Your Affiliate Sales With Free Articles

by Michael Southon



Free Articles continue to be one of the most effective

ways of quickly generating traffic and sales, without

paying for advertising.



But how can you use free articles to promote an

affiliate link? Putting your affiliate link in your

Resource Box is not going to work, for a number of

reasons:



- people can easily remove your affiliate ID

and just visit the main website of the affiliate

program (you get no commission)



- an affiliate link makes you look like just another

beginner, instead of an expert with something

unique to offer



So how do you use articles to promote affiliate

products? Here are some strategies:





(1) Turn your website into a 'Marketing Resources

Directory'



On your website display book covers and provide brief

reviews for a range of eBooks or software that deal

with web marketing.



You could divide your directory into categories: Web

Marketing (general), Affiliate Programs, Search Engine

Positioning, Email Marketing, Copywriting, Ezine

Publishing, etc.



In your Resource Box at the bottom of your article you

could say: John Doe shows webmasters how to succeed in

online business. Visit his collection of marketing

resources at: http://www.yourdomain.com





(2) Write a Free Report



Write a free report on web marketing and turn it into

an exe format free eBook.



Your free report might have 5 or 6 chapters, each

chapter dealing with a different aspect of web

marketing (Affiliate Programs, Search Engine

Positioning, Email Marketing, Copywriting, Ezine

Publishing etc).



In each chapter you would include recommendations (and

your affiliate link) for eBooks or software that deal

with that topic.



Your Resource Box could say: John Doe shows webmasters

how to succeed in online business. Download his free

report, 'Web Marketing In 5 Easy Steps':

http://www.yourdomain.com/free_report.html





(3) Customize the affiliate links in Free eBooks



Most web marketers produce free or trial versions of

their eBooks, and in many cases the order links in

these free eBooks can be customized with your

affiliate link.



You could build a directory of these free eBooks, each

customized with your affiliate link.



The Resource Box at the bottom of your article might

read: John Doe shows webmasters how to succeed in

online business. Visit his collection of free eBooks

today: http://www.yourdomain.com





(4) Use your Resource Box to get new subscribers to

your Newsletter and then promote your affiliate

programs in your Newsletter.



This is the strategy most people use. But promoting

your affiliate links in a weekly Newsletter is a

subtle art - the best way to learn is to join the

Newsletters of marketers who specialize in this and

study their techniques.