Affiliate Marketing Insider - How to Monetize Social Media Traffic

Affiliate marketing is one of the most perspective online businesses. Savvy marketers say that 'affiliate marketing gives ordinary people the opportunity to achieve extraordinary incomes'.

The concept of affiliate business represents the old-as-the-trade idea of the mediator between the producer of product/ service and the end user, gaining a commission for doing their job. In the Information Age the promotional media are becoming as innovative as never before.

Without any doubt social network is among the most significant phenomena in the development of communications of the last few years. Social media as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. have not only entered the everyday communication between people, but have replaced in great extent some forms of communication. Social networks are now the primary form of communication for millions of people worldwide - the place, where they could access and communicate free with known and unknown people from each part of the globe.

This is why social networks are among the most promising media for online advertising, developing constantly. Advertising in social media is currently shaping as a new, extremely perspective direction of advertisement, not only online, but in the general marketing mix. It is though, among the most powerful tools of affiliate marketing in particular.

Marketing specialists are not unanimous on the relevance of advertising in the social networks. However, most conclude that as everyone is in the network everyday, it is the perfect place to advertise, given also the excellent targeting options. Monetizing you social media traffic naturally means that you already have a working social media profile/ profiles and rich list of friends/ followers, etc., which you are actively developing to guarantee you the potential users/ target group audience.

1. Research affiliate marketing programs and enlist products/ services from a winning business niche that you would like to promote

2. Segment your friends/ followers' list into one or more target groups with similar characteristics

3. Assess the relevance of selected products/ services to different target groups' needs, interests and desires in order to choose the items to focus on

4. Join affiliate network to work with according to:

• the reputation of the selected network
• the market demand on product/ service
• the competition saturation in the niche and specific product offer
• the relevance of products to be offered to target groups' interests
• the CPM rate

5. Launch a campaign

6. Develop campaign, monitoring closely fluctuations and constantly fine-tuning

Running a campaign, you have to learn how to asses developments right. To minimize dramatic situations, establish friendly relationship with your account manager to be ready to support you whenever you have questions or doubts in your campaign.

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