There has been much written on how to succeed in affiliate marketing. When I started out, all I wanted was a basic formula or blueprint to follow. After years of trial and error I have developed a basic blueprint, which if followed, will more than likely result in affiliate profits.

Step 1. Use Clickbank

Clickbank is without doubt the best affiliate marketing network to use. The reason is that clickbank only sells digital products, meaning they can be purchased and downloaded instantly. This means that you receive the commission instantly as well, and cheques are mailed fortnightly. It will be worth your while grabbing a copy of Affiliate Elite (see bottom of this article) as it is interprets clickbanks information brilliantly, and can tell you exactly which product is going to result in the most profit. This software is an absolute godsend for affiliate marketers.

Step 2. Choose A Domain Name Based On Your Main Keyword.

The next step is to choose a domain name based on your number one keyword for the product you are going to promote. The easiest way to do this is use a great free tool ‘Keyword Discovery’. Enter the main keyword phrase related to your product, and see what term comes up as the most popular. Then go and buy a domain name based on this keyword – a .com is preferable over any other domain. A handy tip is to add the words ‘review’ or ‘tips’ to the domain name. For example if your keyword phrase was ‘fly fishing gear’ try and get the domain name ‘flyfishinggearreview.com’

Step 3. Design a Simple One Page Product Review Site

Now that you have your domain name, you are going to want to design a simple 1 page product review site. This is proven to be one of the most effective ways of achieving success in affiliate marketing. Find preferably 3 other affiliate products which provide similar services to your main product. Write an introduction describing why you have chosen your main product as the leader. Then write a paragraph below on each product, with your affiliate links included.

Step 4. Submit your website to the directories.

Submitting your website to directories will ensure a steady flow of traffic in the future, and build up one-way back links which will increase your PR (Page Rank) over time. My advice is to pay for this service – it will take you days to do this manually, but will only cost about $20 to submit to 200 directories automatically. I recommend Submit Edge or Directory Maximizer to perform this task.

Step 5. Write Articles Focussed on the main keywords of your website

Articles are a brilliant way of generating targeted traffic for your website. Write 1 article per keyword phrase you have on your site. For example your main phrase may be ‘Fly Fishing Gear’ – that should be your first article. Make sure you include the keyword phrase in the title, and in the first and last line of the article. Ezine Articles is obviously the best directory to submit your articles to.

Step 6. Create an Adwords PPC Campaign

Your final step should be to create a Google Adwords campaign which sends visitors to your website. You should seek keyword phrases with the lowest CPC, and set a small budget initially to test the marketplace. Your Adwords campaign requires consistent monitoring and experimentation for success.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has demonstrated a basic blueprint to follow in affiliate marketing. Success will only come with experience and time. Make sure you learn from your mistakes, and repeat the methods which you experience success with.