Affiliate marketing has turned out to be one of the most popular ways to make money on the Internet. The reasons for its popularity has been defined and praised on countless sites, and in numerous eBooks. For the purpose of this short article I want to refer to my own, simplified definition of affiliate marketing: filling a SPACE with TEXT with the end purpose of convincing the reader to click on a LINK.
In my opinion there are four main types of spaces that can be filled with text, and that all-important link (direct affiliate links or links to pre-sell pages):
1. Content-rich websites centered around a particular topic (or niche). Text for the purpose of marketing include articles, reviews, and overviews of products and services.
2. Single pages - a Squidoo lens is an example of a "single page", as are mini-blogs or (landing page blogs), individual user-generated social bookmarking pages, social networking pages, and even sales pages.
3. Proper blogs. What is a proper blog? It is the main publishing and content management platform for a serious blogger, dedicated to making the best out of his/her blog. This type of blog is rooted in the original purpose of blogging platforms, and is far removed from mini-blogs that become static after the first 3-5 entries. (Mini-blogs can be useful for both the marketer and the person seeking information, and although it can't be compared to a proper blog in terms of traffic and quality of content, it is light years removed from the "splog" - the ugly cousin of the blog family.)
4. Advertising spaces. This kind of marketing space includes the little ads served up by Google and other PPC search engines, as well as classified ads or other content published on classified ad sites (like product reviews with the sole purpose of convincing the reader to click on the affiliate link).
There is one more space that can be considered a major element in any marketing effort: the pages of an Adobe PDF. The Portable Document Format has become the standard for electronic books, and because active links can be included in a PDF, it provides an excellent opportunity to weave some affiliate links in between (hopefully) useful information on a subject.
Some people are ambitious enough to master all of these spaces. Others choose one or two and maximize their profit potential. In the end it's up to you to decide which space is a good fit for your talents, available time and marketing ambitions. Whatever your pick, mastering it would provide maximum return on your efforts.
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Brand Smit is the lensmaster of The Money Index on Squidoo. From Google AdSense to Forex trading to freelance writing and beyond, if you need ideas on how to create a variety of income streams, The Money Index is where the process starts.
