Affiliate marketing is exploding on the Internet.

It doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. And for good reason. Affiliate marketing is the quickest way to get started with a home based online business. But, while it's the quickest, it can also be the most demanding.

Again, for good reason. Because there are so many people involved with affiliate marketing today there is a lot more competition for web site visitors. But, anyone can create an incredible online business with affiliate programs if they follow seven simple affiliate marketing tips

Affiliate tip #1 Preselling must be your top priority

When a new client comes to me for help with advertising the products they are affiliated with, I begin with this first tip everytime. This is where everything else begins. Preselling is basically "warming up" your visitor to click to the merchant site and want to buy something.

This must be your top priority.

For example, let's say you have a great auto accessory site that has a bunch of links to several car part merchants where you make a pretty good commission for every sale made through your affiliate links. You receive ok traffic from Adwords, ezine ads, link exchanges, etc., but not really a lot of sales. Sound familiar?

The problem with this type of "put up the links and wait" approach is that you are wasting, and losing, a ton of money. Those people that are visiting your site are leaving, without buying, and probably not coming back. Unless you spend more money on advertising to get them there.

Preselling takes the initiative in providing the site visitor what they want. After all, that's why they visited your site in the first place. To find something they want.

Ken Evoy has written "the" resource on preselling called, "Make Your Content Presell" (http://mycps.sitesell.com/glimmersales.html) that provides you with all the step by step information you'll ever need to tackle preselling.

Affiliate Tip #2 An ezine follows on the heals of preselling

Preselling is the top priority of any affiliate business, but having a weekly or monthly ezine is immediately behind it.

An ezine is your way to keep in touch with the website visitors that have taken an interest in your site, but haven't made the decision to buy yet. This helps you build a stronger relationship with them by continuing to show them that you are the place to find relevant information.

Affiliate marketing depends on low cost advertising strategies to keep it profitable. A weekly newsletter is the ultimate in keeping costs low.

Affiliate Tip #3 Be a content provider

This tip is a result of the first two. Affiliate marketing riches is built on content. Putting up banners and a ton of links on a page just doesn't work anymore. Google Adsense has really made the fact that content is the most important advertising strategy really stand out.

Your daily tasks should be centered on the thought of content. Articles, product reviews, interviews, how-to's, short manuals, ebooks, free reports, and the list goes on and on. Take these articles, reviews, and how-to's and syndicate them everywhere you can find withing your particular niche (topic).

And not just any type of content. Relevant, up to date, and informative content.

Let's use the car accessory example again. Each page should center in on one different topic to presell one different item or multiple items that are very closely related. Several how-to articles on how to install different accessories and reviews on separate types of seat covers, car stereos, tires, bolt-ons... whatever, should dominate those pages.

This means that people will be finding what they are looking for... content. That makes them happy, which in turn creates buyers.

Affiiate Tip #4 Link up with others

A byproduct of all the content you will be providing on a consistent basis is that other people will love to link with you. This is something you, as an affiliate wanting to keep costs low, will want to be aggressive with. It's a win-win situation for them and you.

Search engines love content, thus will rank you higher. Other potential linking partners, within your niche (topic) will want to be a part of that. This does two things...

From the view point of your site visitor, it shows you as the "expert" because other people are linking to you, and

you also receive traffic from the sites you link to that wouldn't have found you any other way.

Win-win. A great way to find linking partners is with Phil Tanney's free service Links-for-you (http://www.links-for-you). They deliver willing link partners to you without you having to search for them.

Affilite tips #5 Multiply yourself

Now that you have started one site dealing with a specific topic, do it again. And again. And again. And, well you get the picture. Why do this?

One of my clients recently signed up for my Power Niche Package (http://www.guaranteed-ads.com/nichepackage.html) wanted to know why I provide content for a full year. I told them because they just can't stop with one site to be successful.

Basically, affiliate marketing is a numbers game. The more traffic coming to multiple websites, full of preselling content, means successful marketing. To take advantage of the highest number of traffic, you need to set up multiple web sites on different niches.

Affiliate tip #6 Be creative and test

I love being creative, taking a risk, doing something different than everyone else. That means that my affiliate sites never get stale. And I test everything to see what works and what doesn't.

Success can be as simple as where you put your Adsense ad block on your site. Recently people have been experimenting with putting graphics directly above the small blocks. Income from these ads went way up. It worked.

I, myself, like Affiliate Sensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/?u=glimmers2) as an alternative to Adsense. I tested it out on a few different high traffic sites to see what would bring in better income. One site with Affiliate Sensor, the other with Adsense.

It was split. One site, a golf site, performed much better with Affiliate Sensor and the other, a home audio site, had greater response with the Adsense ads. Diversity makes for a healthy, growing, and profitable business.

Be creative with your content also. Test to see which page headings work best, which products people are clicking on the most, where to place our affiliate links within the content, and whether graphic ads or text ads work best.

Don't get stale.

Affiliate tip #7 Always be re-evaluating

Affiliate marketing is powerful, if you stay on top of it. You should never stop researching the "hottest" markets, what people are looking for, what kind of information do people need.

Again, for example, with the car accessory site, you should be always on the lookout for new merchants, new products, and products are selling now. What time of year is it? Winter would bring different needs for content. What turbo boost are people looking for the most? This stuff changes all the time and the successful affiliate has content ready almost immediately.

Affiliate marketing is an awesome way to get started with an online business. You can even make it your only online business, many people do just that. But, it takes passion, determination, and following these seven tips.