Diversity, Diversity, Diversity

One thing you don’t want to do in affiliate marketing is to stick with just one merchant or pay system. As a matter of fact, as a general rule, you will want to diversify every aspect of your marketing. Especially in the beginning.

Specialization is for insects. As human beings, getting opposable thumbs was just the beginning of our domination of the planet. Speech was only a second step. We were able to do things that no other creature on Earth could. These all culminated into a diversity of skills that is constantly increasing.

Consequently, those who have the most diverse abilities have the most resources at their disposal and have the highest chance of success. This has been proven throughout human history. In more modern times, this is especially true in affiliate marketing.

If you specialize in selling for a particular merchant, you only get the benefits of selling that merchant’s products. In the sense of competition, your merchant may one day become “yesterday’s news.” By being mercenary and working for several merchants, you stand a greater chance of weathering that storm.

Products are also a way you could be limited in your scope. You would, of course, be foolish for promoting one product for one merchant. But it really doesn’t get much better if you promote one type of product for several merchants. The variety of products available on the Internet is a variety of income stream, and having multiple streams of traffic is the key to success.

You DEFINITELY don’t want to advertise in just one place, either. Few things will turn away leads more than having a site that is nothing but banners and other types of affiliate links. It looks tacky, it dilutes the importance of any one of them, and it can be confusing. It’s far better to have several different sites with a different set of one or two ads for each one.

It doesn’t stop there. Let’s say that you have a variety of merchants that you promote, and you have a variety of products. You have a huge variety of people coming to your sites. This leaves one more avenue where you need to diversify.

You have to diversify your payment methods. One way that affiliates can limit themselves is by sticking with just PayPal, Authorize.net, or one of several other online payment brokers. The problem here is that not all merchants use the same payment method. Each one may have diverse payment methods, but they may not all be available on the same campaign.

As a result, it’s in your best interest to have accounts with as many of them as you can. This way, you will be freed up to do business with more merchants on more campaigns.

What you’ll find by diversifying every aspect of your marketing is that your sales will skyrocket. You will have more traffic coming from different sources, you will have more ways to get paid, and in the end, more money in your bank. Always keep in mind, “How can I do this differently?” and you will be at the top of the class.