Lisa Irby-top affiliate marketers

How did you start affiliate marketing?
I was a senior in college and needed some money for a Spring break trip. I was playing around on the Internet and found an ad for an affiliate program (which no longer exists). This was back in 1998 when good search engine rankings were much easier to come by.

I did so well that I built a web site to help my downline. I began referring products to help them out and then earned commissions from my referrals.

How long have you been affiliate marketing?
For four years.

What are some of the key points you look for when choosing an affiliate program to promote?
1) Quality of product/service
2) Commissions
3) Quality of merchant’s web site

Do you suggest a potential affiliate becomes familiar with a product before they promote it? Please explain.
Absolutely. If you don’t buy the product, you should at least try it out via a free download, limited trial, etc. When you KNOW the product, you can communicate SPECIFIC benefits to your target audience.

Anyone can say a product is "the best", but I’ve had the most success with affiliate programs when my audience knows that I have actually bought or tried the product and can list specific benefits that are relevant to their needs
If someone is on a tight budget, what are some of the first steps they absolutely need to take to get started on becoming a top affiliate?
Develop a web site on a topic you know a lot about and build a content-rich web site on that topic. Then join affiliate programs that compliment the theme of your site.

Even though many directories are now starting to charge for listings, you can still get into sites like http://www.dmoz.org for free. And of course, once you’re in DMOZ, other engines like AOL and Google will begin to crawl your site. If your site is search engine friendly, you can receive lots of targeted traffic.

Many affiliates tend to believe that they have to start out spending tons of money promoting a web site, but if you take the time to build a site with good content and is optimized for the major engines, you’ll not only receive free traffic from some of the search engines and directories, but other webmasters will begin to take notice and offer complimentary links to your site as well.

How do you suggest promoting affiliate programs?
(i.e.: Do you suggest using the web sites, ads, URL’s provided or doing your own unique promotion?)
I’ve always found it best to promote affiliate programs through articles and then making a recommendation for the product within the article.

In your experience, why is it that most affiliates never receive a commission check?
Their web sites don’t cater to their visitor’s needs. Even if you have a web site that gets 5,000 hits per day, you still may perform horribly as an affiliate if you don’t really know who your audience is and what they need. If your audience is screaming apples and you keep trying to sell them oranges, then you won’t get the sale.

The first step to becoming a successful affiliate is building a relationship with your visitors (through a newsletter, etc) and then suggesting them products and services that they need. A good way to do this is to offer an online survey.

What would you say is the one most important thing you have learned as a top marketing affiliate?
Build relationships with your web site visitors.

What do you feel is the #1 most important thing you are doing to stay a successful top marketing affiliate?
I hate to be repetitive but I’ve always done the best with the programs that I refer through my newsletters because I build relationships with my visitors.

What information do you wish you had when first starting out?
I wish I had realized that having a site full of useful content is much more important than just throwing up links and banner advertisements.

What is the difference between you (The Top Affiliate) and all of the other affiliates promoting the same programs?
I know how to bring targeted traffic to my site and understand what my visitors need instead of making assumptions.

What traffic generating techniques do you use to advertise affiliate programs? Do you advertise at all? If not, explain.
I use pay per click search engines, directory submissions, write articles for other newsletters, and participate in link exchanges

What are some ways you do NOT recommend when promoting your web site or affiliate programs?
Free classifieds, Free for all link pages, and banner exchanges.

What do you think is the biggest mistake new affiliates make?
They rely totally on their affiliate web site and don’t realize how important it is to surround their affiliate links with useful content.

In your experience, do you think you need your own product to succeed online?
No. There are definite advantages to having your own product, but if you attract enough targeted traffic to your site and build a solid relationship with your visitors, you can do just as well as someone selling their own product.

Please donate 1-2 of your favorite and most helpful resource links.
Here are a couple of my favorite sites:
http://www.associateprograms.com

http://www.wilsonweb.com

Lisa Irby-top affiliate marketers