Here are five offline strategies that you can use to successfully promote your online affiliate marketing business:

1.    Be magnetic with your advertising.

Magnets are a great way to promote your online business. Consider buying over-sized magnets from companies such as VistaPrint and place them on your vehicle. You can customize the magnets with your business message, telephone number, and website address. This is a great guerilla marketing strategy because it is a low-cost way to make a big impression.

You can take it one step further by creating business card magnets and sticking several of them on your vehicle for potential customers to take for free. Since some people may be apprehensive about grabbing a magnet off a stranger’s car, it’s best to have a specially-designed “Take One. They’re Free!” magnet conspicuously placed on your vehicle.

Your smaller, business card magnets should serve as miniature advertisements that direct people to call you or visit your web page.

2.    Leave your business cards in local businesses.

Talk to local businesses and ask them if you can leave stacks of your business cards on their counters. You may even want to work out a reciprocal agreement where you barter a win-win situation for both you and the business owner.

For instance, you may give away free marketing consulting in exchange for leaving your cards or other advertising media where their customers can pick them up and take them as they leave.

3.    Give free public seminars.

Consider renting a room to give away a free seminar that is directly related to your business and your offerings. For instance, if you sell “How to Get Out of Debt” info-products, it’s a good idea to hold a free seminar to give away some valuable tips and tricks to potential customers.

At the end of the seminar, you can ask participants to complete information cards with their names and e-mails for your mailing list. Don’t forget to have some of your products available for immediate sale after the presentation.

4.    Give away freebies.

Pens, magnets, specially-printed hand sanitizer bottles, notepads, and any other giveaway is a great way to get your website address out to the public. Try to find products that people regularly use. People tend to get too many calendars as giveaways, so it may be best to order printed pens and other things that people will use on a daily basis. The idea is to keep your marketing message in front of them at all times.

5.    Put your money where your mouth is.

Don’t forget the power of word-of-mouth advertising. Tell your family, friends, and anyone that you come into contact with that you’ve got a free seminar coming up or you’re giving away a valuable info-product on your website.  High-impact marketing does not necessarily mean that you have to spend money for your marketing message to be weighty.

Listbuilding tactics for online businesses don’t have to be initiated online. Remember, the more channels you can use to market your business, the bigger and more profitable your Internet business will be.

There’s no doubt that there are thousands of positive testimonials out there, but for every successful affiliate marketer there are hundreds more who have failed. Here are three common affiliate marketing mistakes and what you can do to avoid them:

1.    Getting too hyped up about the “next big thing” in affiliate marketing.

We’ve all been there. You hear someone’s “great idea,” something they’re convinced that the whole world will be lining up to buy. They get you and everyone within earshot psyched up about the windfall of profits that they expect to rake in with their big launch. The only problem is that there are no guarantees in affiliate marketing, and too many marketers learn this lesson the hard way.

Before you jump on a product’s bandwagon, it’s always best to know the history of its sales results. Instead of hoping to cash in on a new, untested product, choose products that are already selling well. That way you won’t waste your time or energy chasing false hopes.

2.    Joining too many programs and selling too many products.

Successful marketers know that having a laser focus is paramount to successful marketing. Overly-exuberant marketers often run their businesses like bulls in a china shop; they run blindly from this program to that program without seeing where they’re going. The result? A lot of projects that crash before they get off the ground.

Until you master the basics, slow and easy is the road you’ll want to take. Choose one product that you’d like to sell and start from there. Write your sales page. Practice A/B split testing. Learn from your results. You’ll soon discover that you can’t get anywhere by barging headfirst into business.

3.    Choosing products that have nothing to do with your website.

If you’re blogging about college degree programs, choose your products well. Becoming an Amazon.com Associate is a good choice when you’re blogging about college because college students buy books. What you don’t want to do, however, is place affiliate links on your site that have nothing to do with your target audience.

Also, keep in mind that if you place multiple affiliate links on your site, they should all be relatable and compatible with each other. For instance, adding a Dell Computer affiliate link on your college degree programs blog is compatible with your Amazon.com link because both businesses sell products that are of interest to college students.

Knowing the mistakes to avoid in affiliate marketing is just as important as knowing what works. As long as you choose products that are already selling, develop a one-project-at-a-time mentality, and offer your website visitors links to products that are compatible to their known interests, you will be on the right path to affiliate marketing success.

Article writing is an excellent way of getting traffic to your website because you’re not only providing people with valuable content, but you are also handing them a roadmap that leads directly to your home page.

Here’s How Article Marketing Works

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you sell information products, and your product of the month is an e-book that shows stay-at-home moms how to start a medical coding business. You know that there are several topics of interest to women in this particular situation:

• How to earn a medical coding certificate online
• How to start a home-based medical coding business
• How to advertise your medical coding business
• How to get clients for your medical coding business
• How to juggle motherhood with a home-based business

These are just a few ideas for articles that you could write to appeal to mothers who want to work from home. Once you’ve brainstormed for ideas, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start typing.

You don’t have to be an “A” student in English to write good articles. In fact, it’s a good idea if you can write them conversationally, just as if you’re talking to a friend. Structure them in a way that explains—in simple language—what the reader needs to know. Short articles work best; they should be between 300-500 words at most.

Once you’ve written your article, the next step is to publish it. There are many online article directories that allow authors to publish their work free. These directories are a virtual storehouse for people who want to publish their articles and for people who want to read them. Article directories store thousands of articles from thousands of authors each and every day.

Which Article Directory Should You Publish In?

Some article directories allow you to publish duplicate content, but others want only original material. Before you start submitting articles, you’ll have to register with the site and agree with their rules for publication.

Here is a list of ten of the most popular article directories you’ll want to check out:

• ezinearticles.com
• articlebase.com
• goarticles.com
• articledashboard.com
• searchwarp.com
• ideamarketers.com
• isnare.com
• e-articles.info
• upublish.info
• articleblotter.com

You should submit your articles to as many databases as possible. You may even want to hire a virtual assistant to do this for you. The more articles you submit, the more visibility that you’ll have online.

Here’s the real kicker: Whenever an author publishes an article, it is followed by a short bio box—an “about the author” paragraph. This is where the magic begins. Since this bio box will be used with each article that you publish, you’ll want to be sure that you establish yourself as an expert in the field for which you are writing and include a link to your website. Readers who like your articles will naturally click on the external link to learn more about you and your business.

Getting traffic to your website with article marketing is a quick and easy way to attract new visitors to your website. If you submit articles to these databases on a regular basis, you’ll soon discover that attracting targeted visitors costs you nothing but the time it takes to type a few words about something with which you are already familiar.

Here are three ways that you can build your list and get the attention of your current subscribers by blogging:

Join Technorati
One way to optimize your blog is to put your blog in front of your prospects instead of expecting your prospects to materialize in front of you. Technorati catalogs blogs by subjects so that people who read blogs can find exactly what they’re looking for. Think of Technorati as a super search engine of blogs.

The great thing about Technorati is that you can reach thousands of prospective list subscribers that you would otherwise never have contact with. For instance, if someone is interested in sports, he can find a list of sports-related blogs cataloged on Technorati. If you’re a marketer who uses blogs to build your lists, Technorati will put you in front of people who could become not only long-term subscribers but also long-term buyers.

Exchange links with other bloggers
Team up with other bloggers in your niche market and exchange links with them. You should comment on each other’s blog posts, as well, to give more visibility to your blog to each other’s readers. Show your authority in your niche market, and invite the other blogger to do the same on your blog. This creates a win-win agreement for the two of you.

Blog often
The search engines love fresh content, so blog frequently. The more often you blog, the higher you’ll rank on the search engines. Furthermore, the higher your ranking, the more visibility you’ll have for people who want what you have to sell. If you can blog several times a week, you’ll fare better in the search engines. If you cannot post that often, schedule time to write your blog at least once a week.

Use your blog site to establish yourself as an authority in your niche market. Give away a lot of tips free. This establishes a connection with your readers because they’ll not only appreciate the information you offer, but they’ll also regard you as the “go-to” person in their niche market. Your goal is to be first in their minds when they need to buy a product, so inform them, entertain them, and give away free information to solve their problems.

In order to be successful in your marketing campaign, you’ve got to realize that listbuilding is a verb not a noun. Too many marketers think that they can create a squeeze page and let everything run on autopilot.  Not true. If you blog often and create visibility for your business, you’ll attract targeted visitors to your site and, hopefully, build a solid foundation for future sales for years to come.

If you’re tired of working hard to promote your business and want to learn how to make your business work for you, here are three ways you can use your lists to build long-term relationships with your prospects:

Think targeted, not numbers. If you’re focused mainly on the number of people on your list and not their compatibility with your product, you’re going about it the wrong way. Newbie marketers often mistakenly think that having more subscribers is equivalent to earning more profits. This is simply not true.

Successful affiliate marketers will tell you that their fortunes were made from the quality of their leads, not the numbers of people one their lists. Be very specific about your offer, and work to attract subscribers who are specifically interested in your niche market. Your marketing efforts should appeal to your target market, not the entire world.

Put the Law of Reciprocity into overdrive. Here’s the deal. The more you give away free, the more money you’ll earn in the long run. The most successful marketers give away tons of stuff free. If you approach every transaction with a greedy mindset, you’ll soon be finding yourself closing shop and looking for another hobby.

Create something of value, and give it away for free. If it is a free report, target the most pressing needs of your customer base. Use this report as an opportunity for an upsell. Give them value but don’t give it all away free. Use the free report as a lead-in to a related but much more valuable product.

Consider the lifetime value of a customer. You don’t want to make a sale; you want to build a relationship with buyers. Keep in mind that if you give your customers what they want plus more, they’re more likely to make additional purchases from you in the future. The amount of money you can expect to make over the long term with each customer is called the Lifetime Value of a Customer (LVC).

The LVC is more valuable than just the purchases he makes over the course of time. It also considers the referrals he’ll make to others (and the referrals they make to others) when he is happy with his transactions with your company. This is why you don’t want “satisfied” customers; you want customers who are thrilled with their dealings with you. If you’re focusing on the sale, you’re using the wrong approach. Consider the potential reach of a sale, not just the immediate deposit in your bank account.

Listbuilding is about building relationships. Think of it as the difference between your friends and acquaintances. Making a one-time sale is like saying hello to an acquaintance. It’s friendly, but you don’t know if you’ll ever see that person again.  A lifetime customer, however, will be the long-term “friendship” that cements the foundation of your business.

Don’t Cut Advertising in a Down Economy
The last thing you want to do is cut your advertising lifeline. Online marketers depend on high-quality marketing to attract targeted traffic to their websites. Trim a little here and little there from your marketing campaign, and you may lose more than you had bargained for.

The truth is that during a weakened economy, your marketing efforts should go into overdrive. Why? Because many of your competitors will do what others do–belly-up and disappear–and this maneuver on their part will allow you to become more visible and fiercely competitive. As other affiliate marketers cut costs to save money, you should take this opportunity to stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Here’s the reality: While the economy is bad and a lot of people have lost jobs, most people are not broke and have not completely closed their wallets. There are people out there who want to buy what you have to sell. That’s why is more important than ever to invest in high-quality, high-impact copywriting and marketing services.

Find the best copywriter you can afford to create killer sales copy. That’s right. Don’t back down because you think people won’t buy your products. The fact is that they still want to buy, but they are being more selective about the quality of their purchases.

The Secret to Affiliate Marketing in a Recession
I realize that I am dangerously close to sounding like I’m lecturing to you, but there are three things you must focus on if you want your affiliate marketing business to thrive during tough economic times:

Salesmanship. Salesmanship. Salesmanship.

This must be your marketing mantra. You’ve got to sell your product in such a way that builds trust with your customers. That’s why you should operate your business with utmost integrity. The more trustworthy you are in the eyes of your customers, the more likely they’ll put out their credit cards and click on the “Buy Now” button.

Continue to promote yourself as an authority and take advantage of all the marketing opportunities that Web 2.0 has to offer. Find weak spots in your competitors’ marketing and be sure to stand out from the crowd.

Keep Your Prices the Same and Show that You Have Value

Here’s another point to consider: Continue to sell your products at the highest price the market will allow. People are still willing to pay for quality. Once you become a bargain basement business, you’re likely to cut your profit margin.  Charging less will not attract the customers you’re looking for.

Aggressively promoting your affiliate marketing business may not seem like a good move right now. However, while other marketers are holding back and stepping away from the market, this is your time to push your marketing machine forward, dominate your niche market, and thrive.

While you may hear horror stories about people who have seen a significant drop in online income, you should not let their misfortunes influence you. You can build a lucrative affiliate marketing business if you take the time to understand the buying behavior of your customers.

Here are three critical factors to remember when promoting your products to today’s customer:

1.    Your buyers insist on buying value.
More than ever, buyers are insisting on buying more bang for their buck. With so many news stories revolving around people who have been scammed out of their hard-earned cash, it’s no wonder why today’s consumer is more discriminating about their purchases.

This is where you’ll have to focus on incorporating the “thud factor” into your marketing. The thud factor refers to the size–or weight–of a package and the sound it would make if dropped on your desk. In everyday language, this simply means that you want to give them what they’ve paid for plus more–much more.

2.    They want to buy from someone they can believe in.
This is why you have to be sure that you operate from a mindset of integrity. Today’s affiliate marketer needs to instill confidence in his customers. Because a lot of people have lost their jobs due to company closures and layoffs, the Internet is fertile ground for a lot of scam artists looking to make a quick buck.

That’s why you need to work harder than ever to establish yourself as a solid authority and trustworthy business person. Answer customer questions promptly. Conduct your business with the utmost integrity and treat your customers with respect. Give them as much information as you possibly can about your product, and post testimonials with pictures from satisfied customers.

3.    Offer a rock-solid money back guarantee.
Today’s consumer is more willing to part with her cash if she knows that she has an escape route if the transaction is not what she had hoped for. However, if you create a high-quality product and give them a lot more than they bargained for, you’re likely to see fewer refunds.

Don’t be afraid to offer a double-your-money-back guarantee to instill more security in customer transactions. Build your affiliate marketing reputation on good customer service, even when your customer backs out of the deal. You may even want to consider letting the customers keep part of the package they’re returning as a bonus gesture of goodwill.

Affiliate marketing during tough economic times doesn’t mean that your wallet has to be empty. If you understand the buying behavior of your customers, your business can thrive despite today’s weakened economy.

1.    Create a fan page.
Once you’ve established your Facebook account, create a fan page and invite others to it. This way you can separate your personal Facebook account from your listbuilding Facebook fan page. The last thing you want to do is saturate your friends and family with your product details. By creating a fan page, you’ll ensure that the people who become fans are interested in your affiliate offerings.

2.    Don’t confuse social networking with spamming.
If you use your Facebook fan page as an avenue to sell your products to all your fans, then you’ll be shut down very quickly. Do not send sales messages to your fans, or your page will be shut down very quickly. The rule of thumb is to inform not sell.

3.    Entertain your friends and fans.
The great thing about listbuilding via Facebook is that you can be very creative. Post videos and have fun. If just one video goes viral like wildfire, you can get a lot of great leads on your list.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to put a link on your fan page that directs your fans to an opt-in page. Don’t use your videos to sell products; use them to get people to sign up for your list. Give out great tips or engage viewers in something fun. Switch it up, so you don’t become too predictable.

4.    Don’t sell yourself too hard.
You may be very tempted to promote your products but hold back. Remember that people want to buy, but they don’t want to be sold to. Since Facebook is a social media site, most people don’t want to be slammed with sales messages. Instead, provide useful information. You may encourage fans to sign up for your list, and then–and only then–should you make special offers to them.

5.    Build relationships with your prospects.
You don’t want to make a sale; you want to attract long-term customers. On social networking sites like Facebook, it’s imperative that you let your prospective customers see a different side of you. Make it fun. Give away information–lots of it.

The most important thing to remember is that there should be no strings attached to it. The idea is that your generosity will make people want to know more about what you have to offer; therefore, they’ll click on the external link to your website and continue the relationship from there.

Listbuilding on Facebook is a subtle dance between offering helpful advice, being creative, and guiding people toward your opt-in page so they can become your customers. If you use Facebook as a selling platform, you may have your account deleted. If you provide information that is so compelling that your fans will want more of it, you’ll soon find that Facebook is a great way to build your lists for your affiliate marketing business.

The truth is that despite harsh economic times, many affiliate marketers are thriving. They refuse to let a little thing like “the economy” stand in the way of affiliate marketing success. Here are 5 ways that you can use to attract lots of website visitors and earn a pile of money:

1.    Don’t cut your marketing lifeline.
If you’ve been investing in high-impact marketing, this is not the time to cut costs. Continue to promote your affiliate products aggressively. Marketing is the lifeblood of marketing. The goal is not to do less of it; the goal is to do it better than your competitors do.

2.    Demonstrate value for the dollar.
There is a big misconception that everyone is broke. This is another marketing myth. People may be more discriminating about where they spend their money, but they are still spending it. In your marketing campaign, it’s crucial to demonstrate–without a shadow of doubt–that when customers buy your product, it will be one of the best marketing decisions they will ever make.

3.    Develop a presence on social media sites.

You’ve got to pay attention to what your customers want, and in today’s world social media is part of the marketing game plan. There are literally thousands of sites out there that you can join, but here are just a few ideas:

√  Niche-specific forums
√  YouTube (and other video sharing sites)
√  MySpace
√  Facebook
√  Squidoo
√  Digg
√  EzineArticles.com (and other article sharing sites)
√  Twitter (and other Twitter-like sites, such as the Spanish version known as Birddi)

Don’t underestimate the value of social networking. If getting traffic to your website is your goal, you’ve got to go to where the people are instead of waiting for them to find you.

4.    Establish confidence with your customer base.
Since people aren’t likely to part with their money as easily these days, it’s important to establish yourself as an expert with your customer base. More than ever, people are looking for authenticity in the information they seek. Customers are more skeptical these days, so BE the answer they are looking for.

5.    Build relationships with customers.
Practice the theory of reciprocity. When you give something of great value to people for free, they are more likely to buy something from you. When people opt-in to your list, offer a free report, a sample product, or a trial offer that they simply cannot refuse.

Getting traffic to your website, even in financially-shaky times, is not as difficult as you may think. The key is to be the solution your prospective customers are looking for. Give value in everything you offer, regardless of whether it is exchanged for money or given away for free.

If you want to stand head and shoulders above the crowd, think outside the box when you’re creating marketing campaigns. Don’t get caught up in trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, put a new spin on an old product.  This is where you’ll want to get creative. Find a marketing hook that will spotlight your product in a different way. Connect it with something that is happening in the news. Stories are great hooks for spotlighting your product as a solution to a current problem so look beyond the obvious benefits for marketing ideas.

Here’s a fun idea: Don’t be afraid to draw attention to some of your own everyday adventures in your marketing campaign. Marketers will do just about anything to keep their customers interested. I’ve seen everything from skydiving to ocean cruises incorporated into marketing messages. People spend a lot of time on their computers, and if you give people insight into your world and entertain them in the process, you can probably find a marketing hook somewhere in your day-to-day life. Reward customers a one-of-a-kind experience when they land on your website.

If you want to build excitement about your product, create a contest. Customers love to get involved in the creative process, so ask them to name your product, develop a tag line, or find a new way to use your product. It’s not only fun, but you’ll get some great ideas for your business. Be sure that the prize is something that is particularly useful for your target market. Give away free products, offer a free membership in your mastermind group, or give away a month of free consultations. Create a win-win for both you and your customers.

Finally, if you want to remain competitive, you’ll need to master the skills of social networking. Listen, the face of Internet marketing is always changing. It’s not always the most polished person in the room who is the most successful sales person. For the Internet marketer, personality often pulls over polish. Take advantage of all the social networking sites to promote your products. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are very successful avenues for building a loyal following of prospects. These sites are very effective for building rapport with your niche market.

The key to long-term success is to have fun with your affiliate marketing business and to think creatively. Working online does not mean that you should keep your distance from customers. Establish yourself as an expert but also show your personality when marketing your business. Think outside the box and have fun by using unique ideas to create long-term profits for your affiliate marketing business.