How to drive traffic to the blog or website ?

People who visit the blog or site are called visitors or traffic in Internet world. So in my upcoming posts, I'll explain ways to drive traffic to the blog or site. Traffic is like fuel to affiliate marketing. If anyone wants to earn through affiliate marketing, then he/she must be expert in driving quality traffic to the site.

The primarily ways to drive traffic are as follows :-

• Forums :- It is an online platform for discussions like club meeting or a round - table discussions, and it is done in writing only. Here people ask questions, give advice and share news and knowledge. It is free to join. Most forums allow to use a signature file where one can include affiliate link but some forums won't allow to include these links. Here, in forums focus must be on to build reputation and make contacts.
• Viral Marketing :- It is a fantastic way of free online advertising. In viral marketing, just motivate people to pass marketing messages. It can be done by ebooks, emails, attachments, digital products, web pages, downloads etc. It spreads exponentially with a very little effort. Viral report is one of the way to do viral marketing, which is very informative. Viral reports can be shared in forums. I'll explain more about it in my coming posts. 
•  Content :- To get quality traffic content plays a huge role. Content means useful informations, facts, answers, news and products. To make people click on site, stay a while and bookmark it so they can come back, content plays a huge role.

1. Articles :- Articles include stories, how-tos, advice, news, product recommendations, product descriptions, product specifications, informative and descriptive tips. It brings targeted traffic at no cost.
2. Picture and Photos :- These include diagrams, drawings, charts, graphs, photos, slide shows about product or content.
3. Free valuable stuffs :- These include downloads. Please keep in mind that it should be viral.
4. Links :- These include links to related sites. Do not include too much links.

• Advertising :- In advertising section we can include the following :- 

1. Ezine advertising :- If any blogger or site owner purchases an ad space in someone else's email newsletter or ezine, it is called ezine advertising. Ads may be either in classified type or solo ads. It is very quick in sales results.
2. Banner Advertising :- It is an online billboard, which brings inexpensive traffic. It may be in animated or display a changing message. Many affiliate merchants have their pre-designed banners in different sizes to display on affiliates web pages. The best way to promote an affiliate program is to design own high impactful banners. It must be displayed on the first page of the topic.
3. Pay per click (PPC) :- In PPC advertisers have to play a small fixed amount every time someone clicks on ad. Clicks costs depend from a few cents to several dollars. It totally depends on ' Keyword bidding system' and competition for that keyword.                                      

How to make money with affiliate marketing??? - Methods

There are many ways one can make money through affiliate marketing.
Primarily ways are :-

• Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) :- I can define it as "when a visitor buys a product or services through affiliate's link, the merchant pays a certain amount or a percentage for that sale.

Commission Range :- 0 to 70%+ per sale.

Examples :- etoro, greendust, myntra, scopial etc

• Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) :- In this affiliate program, when an affiliate sends a qualified lead to the merchant site through affiliate link, the merchant pays a flat fee for each lead.

Commission Range :- $ 0.10 to $ 20 per lead.

Examples :- timesdeal, snapdeal, sweetdailydeals etc.

Qualified Lead :- To be considered a qualified lead, the visitor had to give his/her contact informations.

Contact information includes Name, email ID, Phone number and address (in rare cases).

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) :- When an affiliate gives ad space on his/her site to the program, then he/she can make a small amount of money from each click on the ad. The most popular pay-per-click programs are from Google's Adsense.

                                     When an affiliate shows Google ads on his/her site, then he/she receives a small % of the amount the advertisers pay to Google.

• Per-Per-Search :- When an affiliate puts a special search box (provided by merchant) on his/her website and whenever a visitor searches the web via this search box, the affiliate earns a few cents.

Is it possible to earn Residual commission ???

Yes, affiliate can earn residual commission because few merchants pay on subscriptions and monthly services like web hosting, but the commission % may be low.

                                     In this type of program, affiliate has to sell the subscriptions only once, but he/she receives commissions whenever the customer pays monthly or yearly subscription fee.

• Single-Tier commissions :- When an affiliate gets a % or a fixed amount per sale.
• Two-Tier commission :- In 2-tier, affiliate gets commission on his/her own efforts+ efforts (sales) by his/her affiliate whom he/she refers. It is like team work. In 2-tier, if affiliate has good number of people in his/her team, he/she can make good amount of money even without doing his/her efforts.

Note :- There are few pros and cons of 2-tier and 1-tier program.

What are cookies and how cookies decide long term commissions???

We can understand cookies as tiny programs given to a visitor's web browser when they click affiliate links. Through these the merchant track a customer back to affiliate.

Whenever the visitor returns to the merchant's site, these cookies information indentifies the affiliate. So for all future business from that customer, merchant pays to that affiliate.

For how long do the cookies last???

Cookies generally last for a few hours to few days, months or even years. After that period they expire and the affiliate could not earn for those cookies (customers).

Note :- Payments terms:- 

Payment terms totally depends on merchant's will.So kindly read the agreement before signing up for any program.

          

How to define affiliate marketing???

Affiliate marketing is one of the way to make money through the Internet now days. It is just like our traditional business system - paying someone when they bring customers to the merchant.

• Merchants are those people who sells goods and services on the web. 
• People who bring customers to these merchants are called affiliates or associates. They are also called program partners.

                        In affiliate marketing affiliates are paid when they send sales or leads to a merchant. Affiliate programs are also called as:-

• Associate programs
• Bounty programs
• Referrer programs
• Revenue sharing programs

                        So whenever an affiliate sends sells or leads to a merchant, he/she got paid for that work. It is also called pay-for-performance.

Now the question is How to send business (sells or leads) to a merchant???

On the web the merchant gives a special kind of link to their affiliate, through those links affiliates send business (sells or leads) to the merchants.

After getting the special link from the merchant, affiliates job is to put this special link on a website, in a email, or even in a picture online.

                        when any visitor or web surfer clicks on links and do action (purchase), then affiliate will be paid a commission on that action.

To get good results affiliates can add his/her own creativity. He/She must think the ways to attract more customers by creative ideas.

                        Special link contains special code which is a unique set of numbers or letters. It is also called affiliate ID. The code identifies the affiliate who brings the action (sells). 

This is the way how this modern marketing system works.

Note:- Only clicking on the link doesn't necessarily mean affiliate will get paid.