So youve set your sights on a particular niche product from an affiliate program and you are all set to make your kill on the internet. You ask yourself, what do I do next and where can I get my first customer?

Before you start running to google ( adwords ) and put your affiliate link on your ad. Note that google no longer allows affiliate links to be advertised directly. You need to create your own sale page or landing page and advertise it instead. ( no such constrain on other PPC company )

As in any internet marketing. You need customer, otherwise your business is as good as dead. You can get traffic from many different sources. Some you pay, some are free but you may have to do some work.

The following are they different types of online traffic you may want to consider.

Pay per click

Traffic exchange

Safelist

Article writing

Ezines

SEO

Email marketing

Whichever of the above method you choose to get your traffic . You need to make full use of them by creating your own list . ( customer data base ) The typical statistic for first time buyers online is around 0.5% ( less than one out of every 100 visitors ) If you pay for these traffic and they do not buy the first time, they are gone forever. That is why you need to capture them in a list and contact then in the near future to increase you chances of sales. Statistics shows that customer usually buy after the third round of persuasion.

In real life marketing, customers get to see you and yet not all will buy from you. Now put yourself in your customers shoe and think for a moment if you would buy from someone youve never met or even seen in person. Buying online can be a big risk. To defuse this tension you need to pre-sell and not hard sell. You need to create a love me not buy me mentality. One way of doing this is to offer free stuff or highly desirable content. Once you get pass this stage, the rest will follow.

To do that, you create an opt-in form in your sales or landing page when you promote your product. Encourage potential customer to provide their name and email before sending them to the main page. That way, even if they dont buy now. You can always follow-up on them later to make them buy from you another day. Your chances of a purchase is now raise for the initial 0.5% to 3% with follow-up sales letters.

Keep building your list of targeted customer and you will see you business skyrocket in time to come. It is something that all internet marketers cannot do without.

In conclusion, affiliate marketing is a combination of art and technique. Learn it , improve on it , and youre made for life. Do not rush into it thinking that your affiliate link and some skimpy ads is all you need to make that sales. It takes a lot of planning and hard work to made you a truly successfully online affiliate. Made for the long haul.