The Equation For Affiliate Marketing Success

The Equation for Affiliate Marketing Success

Affiliate marketing is a business that can have many extraneous variables acting upon its success. An affiliate marketer has to deal with search engine optimization, click-through ratios, affiliate advertiser royalties; and even these complicated issues can change over night after a competitors business model begins to impinge on their standing with Google. It is when the complicated nature of affiliate marketing begins to sink in for upstart affiliate marketers that the business of affiliate marketing becomes somewhat overwhelming. Simplifying the process, however, can reestablish focus and help an affiliate marketer better deal with the adversities they are facing. By understanding a few simple variables, affiliate marketing can be turned into a refreshing dynamic of three easily understood points. Even the most experienced affiliate marketers may be amazed to hear that much of the business encompassed under affiliate marketing can be reduced into three parts of a simple e quation for achieving affiliate marketing success:

High Search Engine Traffic + Low Keyword Competition + High Affiliate Advertiser Competition = Affiliate Marketing Success

Search Engine Traffic

The level of search engine traffic that exists within a particular market is the easiest variable to uncover in affiliate marketing. There are many search engine estimators available online, but the best is easily the one that comes directly from the dragons mouth itself: Google AdWords. Membership is free, and even if your affiliate marketing strategy doesnt involve affiliate advertising for traffic, the AdWords tools alone are worth more than a thousand dollar AdWords campaign to an experienced affiliate marketer who is serious about the business of generating traffic from search engines. The Google AdWords tool, Keyword Tool, shows you the monthly search volume on Google for any given keyword or series of keywords. This number is crucial to an affiliate marketer because one keyword can be searched several million times per day while a very similar variant of that same keyword may only be searched a few hundred times a month. It goes without saying: a keyword with higher t raffic is a good thing, and one with traffic in the millions is a very good thing.

Keyword Competition

Keyword competition is the variable that represents the other businesses and websites that are contending with each other for the previously mentioned search engine traffic. Through search engine optimization (and any other means of cloak-and-dagger subterfuge), these websites compete for that prized first page that comes up during a Google search of a given keyword. This is why most of the keywords that generate a great deal of traffic also have a great deal of competition; when traffic can be transformed directly into profit with affiliate marketing, high-traffic keywords can be veritable gold mines worth fighting for. This is also why most high traffic keywords are all but impossible to break into. Simply by typing a keyword into Google.com, a list of the number of results will be shown below the keyword and you will have a general idea of the direct competition you will be facing for a good standing on search engines. An affiliate marketer can utilize a highly trafficked keyword and still only have minimal search engine traffic to their site simply because the competition for that keyword is so high. As a result of this intense competition, their website shows up on page twenty of Googles search results. If an affiliate marketer wants a top standing on Google, keyword competition needs to be as low as possible.

Affiliate Advertiser Competition

As alien a concept as this may sound to some upstart affiliate marketers, affiliate advertisers compete with each other as well. Instead of competing for a standing on Google, however, they compete to have their ads shown on your website. If they have an online business that sells a product, they are willing to pay to have their advertisements displayed on affiliate marketing websites that are associated with that same product. This means that, through competition, some keywords will actually produce more royalties than others, and one affiliate marketer will be paid more than another for the same amount of traffic. This variable is a huge part of the success one can achieve in affiliate marketing because this royalty difference can mean $0.01 per click for one keyword and $50.00 for another. The Google AdWords tool, Traffic Estimator, is used by affiliate advertisers to calculate their costs for advertising with certain keywords and, incidentally, can also be used by affili ate marketers to see which keywords will pay them the most. Taking the time to see for yourself how much your websites content will make per click can make all the difference to your bottom line: after 100 clicks, you can either make $1 or $5,000.

Affiliate Marketing Success

Affiliate marketing success, while not always the easiest objective to achieve, can be summed up quite nicely in a simple strategy. An affiliate marketers business model should focus on finding a niche within a given market where competition is low. Doing so helps to achieve a high standing on search engines without too many resources being invested in search engine optimization. The market they go into should also be one where affiliate advertisers pay enough per click that the traffic the website will be generating can produce enough capital to support a business.

In summary: High Search Engine Traffic + Low Keyword Competition + High Affiliate Advertiser Competition = Affiliate Marketing Success.

Affiliate marketing can be a daunting business. By keeping the variables straight and the figures they represent in plain sight, much of the mystery and headache often associated with affiliate marketing can be easily remedied. Take the time to research all the parameters of your market and the capital your keywords represent, and you will be well on your way to affiliate marketing success.

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