Building a Rewarding Affiliate Business in 2011

This is a guest post from Susanne Myers. She has lots of knowledge about affiliate marketing, so be sure to leave your comments and questions after you read her post.

I met Connie almost a year ago during a Conference in Wilmington, NC. Right away I was impressed with her passion for teaching and her wonderful way of explaining things in an easy to follow way. I’ve been an avid reader of her various blogs and keep a copy of her book “Huge Profits With A Tiny List” at my desk at all times.

Today, I’d love to share some simple strategies with you that have helped me build a profitable and more importantly a very rewarding affiliate business. My hope is that you will take this information, put it to good use and grow your own business in 2011.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing

Let’s start with what attracted me to affiliate marketing in the first place. I like it because it allows me to share what I know and help others while still making a good living at the same time. Almost all my time is focused on content creation. I write blog posts, emails and short reports. Along the way I recommend products I am currently using that might be helpful to my readers as well.

It will come to no surprise then that I’m writing a blog all about affiliate marketing and how you can incorporate it in your online business.

I also love the fact that what I work on today will continue to reap rewards for years to come. This blog post for example will stay on Connie’s blog and her readers will come across it months from now. The same goes for the blog posts I’m writing for my own blog, articles I write and submit to article directories etc.

It’s All About Giving

I already touched on this, but want to stress it again. I love affiliate and content marketing because it’s all about giving. My main purpose each day is to sit down and share some helpful information with people that are looking for it. My blog post or article might share a tool that helps them solve a problem, or just give them some tips on something they are trying to do.

Let me give you an example. One of my niche sites is all about personal finance and saving money. One day I may share a good ebook I’ve come across that will help you pay off your credit card debt. Another day I may share some tips on how to spend less on groceries. Being able to share and make a difference in someone’s life is what makes running my niche websites so rewarding for me.

Focusing on what you can do to give back and help someone is a wonderful way to run your online business. Not only will it make you feel good, you’re also building a relationship and creating trust with your readers. I’m sure you’ve heard this before: “People will buy from people they know, like and trust”. Build that trust; get to know your readers and the money will follow.

Pick A Niche You Love Working In

Your readers are pretty good at noticing when you are passionate about the topic you’re writing about. You don’t have to be the world’s best expert on a topic, but if you love what you’re talking about it will show. That’s why I recommend you pick a niche that you enjoy working it. Of course it should also be profitable, but don’t pick up real estate or forex trading because you’ve heard there’s money in those niches. Instead focus on something you enjoy.

Connie also has some great tips for choosing a niche that you should read and keep in mind.

The added side benefit is of course that you’ll have more fun working and isn’t that one of the reasons we went into business for ourselves in the first place?

Make A Schedule And Get In The Groove

Once you have your niche picked out and a website or blog set up, it’s time to really get to work. It’s time to grow your site, your readership, your list – your business in other words.

I work much better and am a lot more productive when I have a goal to work toward. I’m sure the same will hold true for you.  Set a goal and make a schedule. Let’s say for example that you want to add 20 extra posts to your blog this month. That means you’ll have to write about 5 blog posts per week. You may decide to schedule them for Monday – Friday. You now know that each morning you should sit down and write a new post. Do this for a few weeks and not only will your blog grow quickly, you’ll also get into the groove and writing that blog post while you’re sipping your second cup of coffee will become second nature.

Time To Promote

I know Connie has done this with writing articles and it has made a huge difference in her online business. Speaking of writing articles – it’s a perfect way to start promoting your affiliate site. If you’re new to article marketing, I can highly recommend Connie’s Article Marketing Profits Workshop.

Social Media is another great way to promote your affiliate niche site. Tweet about it, mention it on facebook and any other social media platform you’re active in.

Continue to promote your site and as traffic to it grows, so will your affiliate income.

And now I’d like to invite you to take a look at my affiliate marketing blog. While you’re there, take a moment to sign up for regular email updates so you’ll never miss a thing.