If you’re reading this, I hope that you are among those who will stay committed over the long haul, constantly increasing your knowledge base and applying what you have learned by acting upon that knowledge.  The most common problem among failed affiliate marketers is buying magic, secret plans and not implementing them to see if they actually work as promised.  Some are no more than buyers; they don’t even read the books they buy.

There are two resources for affiliate marketers that I include in my recommendations.  One has to do with using a marketing approach using blog entries, not just your blogs but the blogs of many other people.  This system is a very useful membership website called My Article Network.  Here I’m going to focus upon one use to which an affiliate marketer can put it, although the prior link will take you to a lengthier description of how the entire system works and may benefit you.

If you use the traditional method of article marketing, you write articles and submit those articles to article directories.  With that method, your links are limited to the author’s resource box, usually published at the end of the article.  In the new method of article marketing, you can use the much more effective contextual linking, that is placing your links directly within the content of the article, where they are far more likely to deliver targeted traffic to your vendor’s site.  Most of the major article directories will not allow you to use affiliate links in your own resource box.  With this system, affiliate links are permitted.  You can check it out for yourself by visiting this remarkable unique article marketing approach that directly submits unique versions of your articles to blogs and websites in your niche from its list of over 10,000 sites anxious to receive content.

The other resource is a complete educational system established exclusively for affiliate marketers who are owners of various size businesses as well as those preparing for a career in affiliate management.  It is a brand new version of Anik Singal’s well received Affiliate Classroom.  Singal earned recognition as one of the young entrepreneurs of 2008 by Business Week, a top publication.  Singal has spent the last two years totally remaking this ground breaking program.  I strongly urge you to sign up for the complete information before all the spaces are taken.  No joke, this will fill very quickly.

If you see simply a squeeze page, that means that the course has not yet opened.  Fill it out to receive updated information, as it is being launched very soon.  If it has already sold out when you arrive, check for a waiting list, and sign up if one becomes available.  Good luck!

Anticipating a question that I would ask, yes, both of these have affiliate programs, but you can’t use your own affiliate links to purchase either membership.  You must sign up for both prior to gaining access to the affiliate programs.

Technorati Tags: affiliate classroom 2, affiliate classroom two, affiliate marketer, affiliate marketing, affiliateclassroom2, article marketing, my article network, myarticlenetwork

I sell my own digital and physical products, but a sizeable chunk of my income still comes from affiliate marketing, where I began.  I use websites and blogs for all of my online business activities.  I rely quite heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) to secure traffic, but that is a long term strategy.  In some cases, I have used PPC for affiliate products with success, but more often I am lucky to break even. 

Consequently, like many in affiliate marketing, increasing traffic at a reasonable cost is one of my most vexing challenges.  It is particularly difficult for those times when I discover a new affiliate product but for which none of my sites are well optimized.  How do I get the visitors to the vendor’s site with my embedded affiliate link?

My approach to directing traffic to the vendor’s site is just like many other affiliate marketers, I take them first to my own site, where I ply my skills of subtle persuasion.  Then I just hope that I have been sufficiently convincing to get them to click the link that directs them to the vendor’s site so that I have some small chance of earning my commission.  I have always wished that I could cut out part of the middle of that process.

I use content syndication for all of my sites.  I employ that strategy primarily for its SEO value but also for the direct visitors that are sent my way.  There are two major problems with the traditional approach to article marketing, especially for the affiliate marketer.  The first of those problems is that the top tier directories that publish and distribute articles do not allow links within the body of the article, contextual linking.  Typically, the links are isolated below the article itself in a sort of no man’s land called the author’s box or the resource box.  Second, the major article directories do not allow affiliate links or even links to redirected pages or domains.

Finally, there is an article distribution service that solves those two problems and allows direct linking using our affiliate links which can be placed contextually within the article.  It’s called My Article Network–and, yes, once you are a member, you can join its affiliate program.

My Article Network is like a consortium for article marketers and content publishers.  (That link will let you know what I have to say about it on one of my sites.)  It’s another of those Callen projects that most of us who hang around online business for any period of time have come to know so well.

It would be wise for me to let the sales page of My Article Network persuade you on its own.  I’ve been using it for less than two months, and I am a complete convert to the system.  In fact, I even set up four new niche blogs to make use of the free content that my colleagues provide.  {(Go ahead.  Click the link, you know you want to.)(Do it!  You know you want to click the link.  Come on…don’t you think I deserve it?}

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketer, affiliate marketing, almost free traffic, article marketing, cheap traffic, my article network, myarticlenetwork, traffic