Building New Affiliate Sites - Don't Put Cart Before Horse

[Linda Buquet]

Rosalind Gardner has a really good blog for n00bs to read.

Affiliate Marketing: Are You Putting the Cart Before the Horse?

"New affiliate marketers often fixate on getting “traffic, traffic and yet more traffic” to their recently launched content sites. However, in their rush to start earning commissions, some affiliates make costly errors when they pay to drive traffic to sites that are not yet ready for visitors. To learn which (7) conditions MUST be met on all affiliate sites before launch, read today’s NPT article:"

http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog/...ore-the-horse/

What do you guys think? Any other words of wisdom???

[autoecart]

I think the most important thing with any site affiliate or not is go through all page links to make sure they work, view the page in both IE and Firefox to make sure it looks correctly, and go though all signup processes themself to make sure everything works.

[TwoFifty]

Linda,

I read that blog post and immediately bookmarked it (the blog is in my feed reader), I have since printed it out and pinned it on my "noticeboard".

[iReef]

Good points, IF you're paying for traffic.

If you're depending on organic search results for traffic, then I find putting the horse before the cart can be a good idea - get SOMETHING up and indexed while you perfect the site. Because it's going to be several weeks to months before anybody but the SE's are coming anyway.

[Linda Buquet]

Good point iReef. ShoeMoney on his radio show went through his 6 tips for launching a successful site and they were diffferent but also good. This is a podcast so you can listen whole you work instead of reading it. It got a little disjointed with questions and comments from the chat room but some VERY good points were made. Remember Shoe is making like a kajillion a month - so its worth paying attention to what he says.

» 6 Tips to Having A Successful Website : Shoemoney Marketing Thoughts

"I was solo for this episode of Net Income but I had a agenda that I wanted to cover… It was my six tips on building a successful website."

Listen here:
http://www.shoemoney.com/2006/09/13/...ssful-website/

[JustinHarrison]

I just recently wrote an article entitled Affiliate Marketing 101 and actually referred to Rosland’s e-Book - the super affiliate handbook in the article

I think we all tend to over think affiliate marketing sometimes, and very often we tend to complicate our roles as affiliates.

This article I am sure will hold some relevance for those who have either lost their way a bit or those who a disillusioned with their results.

[Linda Buquet]

"I think we all tend to over think affiliate marketing sometimes, and very often we tend to complicate our roles as affiliates."

Very true Justin!

Feel free to advertise your book down in the Ads& Offers section. Just PM me to alert me so I approve it and make it live. Or better yet add it to your SIG!

[Lisa76]

Great article, Linda. I think the "About Us" page with a pic of yourself is so important. The Internet is filled with so much anonymity and scams, often times visitors find comfort when they can put a face with the content. Sometimes it's just the little things.

[fahren]

Good info here. It got me thinking--should you sign up with a program only when you're ready to start marketing it? I have some ideas that I probably won't get to for several months. Should I sign up now or wait?