Just like you, I can’t afford to waste money on affiliate marketing tools that I won’t use or that don’t fulfill their promises.
I need affiliate tools that will save me time and effort, and give me the competitive edge I need.
These are the 5 affiliate marketing tools that are my favorites:
1. Create a professionally designed website. I’m a serious affiliate marketer 
so I always use easy website builders that have affiliate marketing tools designed into them.
Site builders that use things like affiliate link wizards and redirect pages can can help ensure your affiliate links are correct and limit affiliate theft.
To complement my sites I love to create blogs. You can start a blog for free using blogger.com or WordPress.com, or for about $10 a month you can create your own self hosted blog using WordPress.org.
If you sign up for my newsletter at the top, I’ll send you my free step-by-step guide on how to build your own self hosted Worpress blog.
2. Use an Email Autoresponder. For me, using a reliable email autoresponder is one of my most valuable affiliate marketing tools. That’s because not everyone who visits your affiliate website will make a purchase, no matter how well you promote your affiliate products, but if you can create your own opt in email list by capturing a reader’s email address you can increase your chances of making a sale by about 20-50% from most people who visit your site just one time. That’s significant!
You’ll be able to follow up with subscribers by sending them useful relevant information such as an e-course or an e-zine with interesting tips, new product information, etc.
That keeps them informed of what your business is doing and it will also encourage them to visit your website again and again.
3. Redirect your Affiliate link or use a link cloaker. Some affiliate links are long and down right ugly, so it’s a good idea to redirect your affiliate link or simply cloak it. This also discourages replacement of your affiliate link and lost revenues.
Also, if an affiliate program decides to change my affiliate link; yes, it happens, I only have to change my link in one place, this saves me the headache of having to find my links throughout my site and change each one individually.
If you need help, here’s how to hide your affiliate links.
4. If you advertise your affiliate site use an advert tracking system. This is how you can track and assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and the advertising tools that you use.
This analysis will help you select the most effective campaign and help you know where to invest your money for the best results. Google analytics is ideal and it’s free. I’ve also used Quantcast.com which is also free and gives you lots of good information about your site as well.
5. Provide coupon codes or bonus products. Because there are other affiliates marketers promoting the same products as you, competition can sometimes be stiff. Of course it depends on the products you’re promoting but I like to sweeten the pie by offering a potential buyer a bonus product upon purchase or throw in a coupon code.
These are perfect affiliate marketing tools for helping ensure I get the sale over my competitor.
Your bonus product should always be something of value and directly related to the affiliate product you are promoting. Not all affiliate programs or affiliate managers allow affiliates to use a bonus as a sales strategy but many do, so always check with the affiliate program first.
I personally love using coupon or promotion codes. Who can refuse a buying with a discount. I always make sales when I use them.
Always ask your affiliate manager if they can provide you a coupon code or a special discount if visitors orders through your link. I rarely run into an affiliate manager that will refuse to do that. They even set it all up for me. It’s such an easy way to ensure I get the sale over my competitors. It also means more sales for the product owner, so it’s a win win for both of you.
One thing I’ve learned about affiliate marketing is that most affiliate marketers are lazy, they don’t use affiliate marketing tools that give them an edge. But that’s a good thing for you. Using effective affiliate tools can give your income a quick shot in the arm and you’ll have a much better chance over the lazy marketers that aren’t as smart 
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
great post as usual!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Love the gift ideas, this stuff’s not just for Christmas either. Great gifts for year round.
–LazyRich–
Twitter: autumn0106
May 4, 2011 at 1:12 am
Nice to see great post like this. I am also using Site built it and really helps me with my affiliate marketing business especially making link exchange. This great idea of course are the things to be follow in order to be successful in making online business. Doing affiliate marketing is not that easy, so we really needs an affiliate marketing tools to make it easier. keep it up and hope to read more post from you.
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