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The best online marketing strategies consist of 2 basic but complimentary techniques. When utilized properly and combined they are the ultimate secret in affiliate marketing. These techniques are content marketing and SEO. Once employed, these strategies create lasting, targeted and profitable traffic to your affiliate offers. If you're new to affiliate and content marketing, I outline the basic steps to getting started below. Anyone can start a business online using these methods and achieve wild success with time and effort. If this type of business interests you, keep reading, what you need to get off the ground is right here. The Ultimate Combination For Affiliates Getting eyeballs on your offers is a mighty task. Add the fact that these eyeballs have to be targeted and have some kind of trust in you before any sales can happen. SEO takes care of the targeted traffic and content marketing takes care of the trust, if it's all done properly. Below, we'll cover both techniques and explain how they work together. Both techniques require a bit of time and energy, but if you put a little of both into this magic formula, you can sell almost anything. You will also need knowledge and the proper tools. So, lets get started... You Must Have Content And A Website You must have a website to pull off this type of marketing, preferably with your own domain name. They aren't hard to acquire, or even run these days, there are CMS's (Content Management Systems) that help with these tasks. One of the most popular, the one I also recommend, is WordPress. Many hosting companies have ready-made WordPress sites, all you have to do is add a theme. Once you have a website, the foundation of your business, just fill it with quality content relevant to your market, sprinkle in affiliate links and you have a selling machine. I know, content is where the work comes in. You can write relevant articles to fill your site or you can outsource the writing , or a combination. The Right Tools Speed Success Aside from a website, you need certain tools to help avoid the time-wasting trial and error method. One good tool to have is keyword research. You don't need to over stress about keywords if your content is good, but keyword research will give you a good idea if you have a chance of landing on the first page. The best content and website does you no good if you target high competition keywords by accident. It pays to do some research and be sure you are heading in the right direction before putting in hours on content that will never rank. In most cases, quality content will rank somewhere and produce some traffic, so stressing too much about keywords isn't usually necessary. Content Driven Marketing The concept of content driven marketing is simple. You provide quality content relevant to your market which gives value to the end user. You're giving them what they want when they typed in your target keywords, quality information. You must also project reputation as an authority on the subject which serves to further build trust. Few people go to search engines looking to buy. But, by the time they finish reading your article, they may realize they need what you're selling. They'll buy if you give them enough quality to establish trust. Your content can be crafted to both attract visitors, then convert those visitors into buyers. Trust is the secret to content marketing. If your reader feels you gave enough quality and trusts your opinion, they will spend money on your affiliate offers. If they don't trust you, you fail to convert visitors through reputation and quality, you will rarely sell anything to anyone. SEO - Search Engine Optimization If you have good quality information, there isn't much else you need to do for SEO. If you run a WordPress site, a SEO plugin will help to ensure the search engines are finding what they need to index your content. Your content will do most of what is required to get good rank. Don't get hung up on keyword targeting too much. Establishing authority with search engines happens over time if you provide quality on a consistent basis. With this authority will come trust with the searching public. Being ranked well in the big 3 search engines creates trust with the public and your content will do the rest. Social Media - The Wild Card There is one last thing worth mentioning. Social Media has an influence on search engine rankings. If your content is getting attention on social media sites, the big 3 search engines will notice and assume what you have to say is worth talking about. An endorsement from a trusted friend is very powerful and almost ensures a high level of trust upon landing on your content. From there, everything else will be easy. Some engagement is a good thing on social media but it can have a negative impact if overdone. Never attempt to create an illusion of popularity on social media by buying likes, followers, or similar strategies. Search engines are onto these tactics and you will be punished in your rankings if you make such attempts. Keep any social engagement honest and only as a supplement to your overall strategy. Getting Started With Content Marketing If all of these concepts are new to you, it might be a bit overwhelming as to where to start. I will cover the major steps below, but, each major step involves several 'sub-steps'. If you approach this one major step at a time, not biting off too much all at once, you can achieve everything necessary to get started as an elite affiliate marketer with time and effort. Just Get Started - This will be where most people fail. The single most important thing you will do next is to take the first step and commit to success. Anyone with the will and drive to succeed can become an elite affiliate marketer, nothing else special is needed, just your time and energy. Get Educated - I highly recommend you get educated in the details of affiliate marketing and content driven marketing before you spend a lot of time and money setting up a website. There are a lot of pitfalls and it's very easy to get discouraged using the trial and error method. Choose A Market - Pick a specific market to promote. Try to select something you are passionate about. If you love what you are doing, the chance of burn out is greatly reduced and you are much more likely to press on with the work into the future. Nothing is too esoteric, there are thousands of affiliate programs aimed at whatever you choose, so don't worry if you think you are interested in something too specific. Select A Domain Name - You will need your own domain name relevant to your market, preferably a .com TLD. The .com names tend to rank better and gain authority with search engines faster. Create A Website - Find a good hosting company with WordPress sites pre-installed. Start small, there is no need to buy expensive hosting until your site starts getting traffic from search engines. This will take time but that's not necessarily bad. It will reduce the pressure to create enough content to be successful. Join Relevant Affiliate Programs - Research the products and services you want to promote. Be sure they meet your standards for quality so you aren't pointing your readers to something that could tarnish your reputation. Also, the affiliate programs should pay a decent commission so you have a chance to make enough for your time and efforts. Create Quality Content - Your content will serve 2 purposes. The first is to educate and inform your readers so they feel like they got value by visiting your site. Second, the content should be crafted to very subtly convert your readers into buyers. The latter should be very subtle, never appear to be overtly selling, this will surely backfire. Get Indexed - Once you have good content it needs to be found. The big three search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo, need to index and like your content as valuable so you rank where you can be found. WordPress has a facility to alert the search engines when you publish new content. Add Content Regularly - Add content to your site in a steady and consistent basis. Generally, 3 new articles a week of around 1500 words should work nicely. If you have time to add more, even better. You can outsource some work if you can afford it, but early on, that won't be required. Answer All Comments - When people visit your posts, they can leave comments on your content if you have that setup in WordPress and you should. Comments and your timely replies are very good for search engine rankings. Now You Have The Basic Blueprint, The Next Step Is... All that remains is taking action. If you commit yourself to being successful, you will be. One of the most important steps toward success is getting educated instead of going it alone. This one step will help to assure your success and drive to stick with it over time. The methods discussed in this article won't happen overnight, so don't give up, keep at it. If affiliate marketing is an interest, rest assured you can easily make a full time income, or more, using the techniques in this article. It will take time and effort though. There are no get-rich-quick methods that are real, the endless 'systems' I am sure you have run into, just don't work. Only your hard work and determination can guarantee success. > Click Here – Learn How To Create Your Own Money Making Website Steven