Top Affiliate Tactics

The Cheapest, Fastest Way to Advertise on
the Internet: Forum Posting
Posting on forums is one of the cheapest and fastest ways in which you can advertise
affiliates products on the Internet. However, in order to do this successfully, you must do
a number of things carefully.
Warning! Simply starting a thread that contains an affiliate link might be a
good way to get banned from a particular forum board, but it will never be a
good way to make sales.
The general procedure involves making multiple posts on a forum board before you even
setup a signature file, which includes a link to your site. Even if the particular forum you
are using does not specifically mandate this, you will want to do this, anyway, as it will
increase your credibility – which is your real goal.
You can start by finding a number of forums for your particular niche or marketing angle.
You can find massive lists of forums at the following two URLs:
http://www.big-boards.com/
http://board123.com/forum_directory.php
The first resource is currently the largest forum directory on the Internet. The second
resource contains lesser directories, but includes some that are not listed on Big Boards.
Now, once you have selected a number of directories that match your specific marketing
angle and affiliate product, you will want to investigate to determine whether or not they
have excess rules regulating signature files.
For instance, some sites do not allow any links in signature files; others, by contrast,
allow links, but do not allow any commercial links. Make sure you know what the rules
are before you post. Otherwise, you are simply setting yourself up to be banned from the
forum.
Next, take the list of forums you have created – that are both relevant to your topic and
allow commercial links – and begin developing a reputation on those forums. Post
regularly, avoid meaningless fights and flaming, and contribute useful, on-target
information to discussions. In a matter of 1-2 weeks, you will have developed a
reputation, provided that the forum receives a considerable amount of traffic.
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Top Affiliate Tactics
Once you have developed a good reputation, you will want to begin advertising through
your forum signature. Ideally, you will want to include some eye-catching assortment of
colors, symbols, and words in your signature.
This will draw people's attention. You will then want to link them to something other than
an affiliate page – whether it be a page you created to sell an affiliate product or an auto
responder course used to capture email addresses.
Remember to repeat this process in all applicable forums. Look for high traffic forums
that allow commercial link posting in signature files – and that also happen to fit with
your specific audience-targeting and marketing angle goals.
Next, create a reputation. Last, add your signature in some attractive way that draws
visitors' attention, but is also likely to convert them into interested clickers. You will find
that this form of advertising pays off considerably – and does so faster than other
methods available.
Using Traffic Exchanges to Promote Affiliate
Programs
If you're unfamiliar with exchanges, you will want to read this over carefully and consider
printing it out:
One of the best ways in which you can promote affiliate programs is through various
traffic exchanges. Almost all well-defined, robust niches on the Internet have some form
of traffic exchange. For instance, casinos, gaming sites, niche forums, and Internet
marketing sites all have some form of traffic exchange system. IM, in particular, has
dozens of exchanges.
A traffic exchange can serve multiple functions; however, in most cases, it does two
important things:
1) It allows you to surf sites, gain credits, and then cash in those credits; and
2) It allows you to put banners or dynamically-generated link boxes on your
site that will generate credits, which you can then cash in. Cashing in credits,
with most exchanges, results in a certain amount of traffic being drive to your site
via the exchange site or via banners on other sites that are members of the
exchange.
A good place to start when working with traffic exchanges is to determine which ones
are most reputable and which ones have reasonable point systems. For instance, some
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Top Affiliate Tactics
traffic exchanges allow users to cheat and some have bad systems of exchange, which
heavily favor paying members over non-members. You will want to find the best possible
exchange given the amount of money you are willing to spend and the product you are
marketing...