Fail-Safe Affiliate Program Marketing Strategies - A Proven 10-Step Pay-Per-Click Tutorial

Want to master the art of affiliate program marketing strategies? If you do, you can earn as much as $100,000.00 per month without owning your own product or service.

Affiliate marketing is where a merchant pays you for sending people to their site as long as they end up taking a specific action such as buying their product. The merchant then pays you a percentage of the sale or a flat rate, depending on the offer.

There are literally thousands of websites that allow you to become an affiliate. One of the simplest ways to make a lot of money is through direct linking. This means that you write your ad at Google and when someone clicks on your ad it will directly link to the merchant rather than coming to your own site.

The advantage of direct linking includes that it minimises your effort on the front end. You also don't have to concern yourself with customer service or e-mail support on the back end. The downside, however, is that you're not able to build a relationship with your clients. You're unable to build your own list for future product offers. By direct linking you are also running the risk that your ad won't show all the time. If two people are promoting the same website and bidding on the same keyword, Google will only allow one direct link ad to show up at a time.

There are different ways to drive traffic, some of which are free. One of the best affiliate program marketing strategies is a pay-per-click campaign.

Step-by-Step Process for your pay-per-click campaign:

1. Set up a Google AdWords Account. You can investigate Yahoo Search and MSN Adcenter at a later time.
2. Identify merchants of products you would like to promote in a niche that interests you. If you already have your own website, stick to something that you feel passionate about in the beginning. How-to things, retail good, and digital e-goods on any variety of subjects tend to do well. Merchants can be found at affiliate networks such as ClickBank.com, CJ.com, ShareASale.com, and Linkshare.com. You will also find plenty of independent partner programs within corporate websites.
3. Submit an application to join your chosen merchant programs by submitting your details and payment information. Review their terms of service. Some merchants have rules involving the bidding on trademarked terms and URLs, whilst others have 'direct link' restrictions. Direct linking means that you send your pay-per-click ads directly to a merchant site. There are also merchants who require you to have a website with minimum traffic.
4. Do keyword research and keep your AdGroups very targeted. If someone is searching for a yellow umbrella, you want to send them directly to 'yellow umbrellas' as opposed to, for instance, 'rainy-day products'. It is important to use the main keywords within the headline of your ad. Use Google's AdWords keyword tools to identify related or alternative keywords to those you have already identified. Consider that longer tail keywords have a lot less search volume but will more than likely convert higher. There is also value in bidding on misspellings.
5. Craft your AdWords advertisement, making sure that you conform to Google guidelines. You can either send your traffic directly to the merchant through direct linking, or design a squeeze page or website specifically for the product.
6. Enter the destination URL, which is the location that a visitor will be sent to after clicking on your ad.
7. Set the bid price and daily limit according to your budget. When beginning, a minimum bid of five cents per click is acceptable, as is a daily budget of five or ten dollars. You don't want to spend more than you can afford to lose. Gradually progress to ten cents and twenty cents with bigger daily budgets as you have some profits coming in. If you can afford it, you may bid up to a dollar or more in order to outbid others and get your results quickly. The benefits are that you can turn off the losers and put more effort into the winners sooner.
8. Turn the ads live.
9. Always test your ads using simple A/B split testing. This can be done by rotating two ads. One of them will get clicked on more than the other because it was written better or appeals to more people. Sometimes even the smallest change in the headline, such as adding a question or an exclamation mark, can improve your click-through rate dramatically. It also helps to capitalize the first letter of each word.
10. Adjust your bid pricing to maximise your profitability. 200 to 300 clicks will give you a fair idea of the success of the ad. Realize that only a certain percentage of your ads will be profitable. Become familiar with Google's Adwords metrics and check your stats often. Work on improving your profitability if an ad shows promise or delete it if it doesn't. Use the lessons you learn to structure a pay-per-click strategy for more significant follow-on campaigns.

A lot of successful affiliate marketers hire ad writers. It's not uncommon for them to have up to 25,000 AdGroups or more up at any given time. Ultimately, your success depends on how much time and effort you put into mastering the art of affiliate program marketing strategies.

Psychologist and author Dr Mia Glanville has a passion for helping people make their dreams of building an online business come true. She has helped thousands of people to achieve their full potential over the past 17 years. Visit http://www.site-building-made-easy.com for your FREE gift, How to Make 80,000+ per year Selling Simple Information Online in your Spare Time.