As with any business model, planning is key.  Affiliate marketing is no different in that you need to plan out your marketing strategies and follow the path you’ve planned in order to be successful.

Let’s look first at some of the marketing strategies available to you:

1.  Article marketing
2.  Pay Per Click (PPC) ads
3.  Blogging 
4.  Social media
5.  Your list
6.  Squidoo lens
7.  Interview product creator
8.  Video

Whichever strategy you use, and you should use a combination, pick your keywords carefully.  Yes, it’s easier to just write your blog post or article and get it up as soon as possible and finding longtail keywords is boring and time-consuming, but it’s so important.  I would even go so far as to say, if you don’t have your longtail keywords in the article or post, you might as well not write it.  What good is the article if no one reads it because it gets no traffic?

Now back to looking at the marketing strategies - which ones will give you the most bang for your buck?  Only you will know for sure as it depends on your skills, areas of interest, ability to complete in a quick manner, and amount you’re willing and able to outsource.

Perhaps you’d like to write 30 articles to submit to article directories, 3 promotional emails to your list, and 1 blog post.  You’d also like to interview the product creator and send that audio to your list as well as post it on your blog.  You also want to shoot a couple short videos.

Your plan may look something like this:

Keywords
Spend the time finding great longtail keywords or outsource it.
Use them in everything.

Website or Blog
Immediately purchase a domain name and point it to your server.
Website - Get graphics, set up site with HTML editor.
or Blog - Change to suitable blog theme and load appropriate plug-ins.
Add Google Analytics and/or other tracking tools.
Get affiliate ID and cloak it if you’re allowed.

Articles
Write an article every other day x 3 weeks.
Outsource the rest of the articles.
Submit each to Ezine Articles every 2 or 3 days.  Do the same with the other top article directories or join a service that will do the submitting for you.

Interview
Contact the product creator for an interview and schedule it as soon as possible.
Do the interview and prepare it to be heard by others.

Emails
Write 3 promotional emails. These can be part emails provided to you by the product owner and part your own personality.
Set these up on your autoresponder to go out at the intervals you decide work best.

Blog Post
Determine if your blog post should be before or after the audio interview as you’ll be posting the interview to your blog as well.  When you’ve posted the interview, send an email to your list letting them know it’s available for free.

Video
Do a short video explaining the problem and how the product will solve the problem. 
Do another video of you talking about what you’ve written in one of your articles.
Upload these to YouTube.

Stats and Analysis
Stop and look at what you’ve done and analyze if it’s working.  If it is, add more of the same.  If not, add additional traffic sources.  Tweak and analyze some more.

The point I want to get across here is that affiliate marketing should not be done in a haphazard fashion.  Many new marketers think all they need to do is set up a website and plop the product on there with one review.  They forget to invite traffic and then wonder why they don’t make sales.  It is possible to make good money with affiliate marketing when you have a plan and implement that plan in a straightforward manner.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Marketing - Your Questions Answered
2. The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
3. So You Want To Be A Top Affiliate On The Leaderboard?
4. 5 Ways To Make Money From Affiliate Programs Without Your Own Website
5. Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make
6. 3 Keys To Becoming a Top Affiliate
7. Affiliate Marketing Mistakes - Misconceptions & Pitfalls
8. Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Now Anyone Can Be an Online Marketer!
9. Avoid Common Mistakes With Affiliate Marketing
10. What You Need to Know About Affiliate Marketing Online

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