After years of promoting products and affiliate offers online, I have realized one thing. Most of what you read online is either self-motivated, outdated or way too complicated. Your inbox is probably full of offers for “make money online” products or “push-button” traffic solutions. 
Yes, you do need offers to promote and you do need traffic. The problem is that you need to have a quality offer to promote and traffic that is actually targeted to that offer.
How to Choose What Offers to Promote:
Look at who is actually selling the offer. Do they have a good or a bad reputation in the IM community? Are they constantly putting up new offers every single week? If so, there is a good chance that they are in the selling game and not actually using the systems that they are trying to sell you.
Actually get a demo copy from the seller or buy the product yourself before promoting to your list. Your list is your most important asset. Send them quality offers that will actually benefit them and that you have actually tested and seen positive results with. They will trust you more and, on top of making money, you will be able to look yourself in the eye in the morning.
Look at the commissions that are paid. Most people fall into the trap of promoting low ticket offers. You will never meet your financial goals this way. Promote offers that pay out $100 or more. Get confident there, and build up trust and authority with your list and then go for the $1000 or more offers.
Where Should You Get Traffic?
There are tons of ways to get traffic. Some cost and some are free. You need to decide which is more important to you – your time or your money. In the beginning, you may need to trade time for money. That is ok. We have all been there. As soon as you can though, you either need to pay for advertising or hire virtual assistants to do the daily traffic getting grunt work for you. This is a business and like any business, there will be expenses. Be consistent and soon your revenue will far surpass your expenses.
The most important aspect of your traffic campaigns and tasks is that they are targeted. There are tons of programs out there promising to deliver tens of thousands or even millions of views. Avoid these offers like the plague. In most cases, these lists are spam and you can even have your right to promote offers pulled for sending crappy traffic.
Here are some of my favorite ways of getting free traffic:
Youtube
Create videos that provide value. For example, if you are promoting an affiliate offer on a video creation software program, actually create a demo video showing them how to use the program.
Take them step by step and show them how easy it is to use and how it will make their lives easier.
Make sure to use the name of the program and the word review in the title once or twice, in the description between 3-5 times and in the tags.
Make sure to use original content in the description that is at least 500 words.
Make sure to have a call to action with your affiliate link or an opt-in form so that they can check out the program within the first two lines of your description.
Make sure that you have an attention-grabbing thumbnail that makes them want to click through to your video.
Rinse and repeat with both long tail and short tail keyword-based videos
Images
Create attention-grabbing images with an intriguing caption that hints that you can solve their problem
Make sure that the images are in jpeg format
Use an image of an attractive woman, as it has been proven that this boosts conversions.
Distribute these images on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
Optimize the images by right-clicking on them and adding tags, clicking the five stars option and adding a description with your main keywords
Make sure that the file name of your images have your main keyword in them
You can also share your images on these sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_image-sharing_websites
Articles
Write articles with your main keyword in the title and at least 2-4 times in the article.
Longer articles do better so make sure that your articles are at least 1000 words.
Again, give value. Teach them a skill that can be used in conjunction with the product that you are promoting.
Remember to include a link to where you want them to go in the article.
Create various, unique versions of this article.
Post one version to your blog.
Post the other versions on article sharing sites.
Create a free google site and put a version of the article there
You can even take these articles and turn them into videos and audios.
Submit the video versions to Youtube and Vimeo.
Submit the audios sharing sites
What About Paid Traffic?
Solo ads can be a good way to get traffic, once you vet the people sending the traffic. Look at their ratings and reputation. Test their traffic on a small campaign. If that does well, up the amount that you buy, while still keeping track. Use a service like clickmagick to track your campaigns and make sure that the traffic that is being sent is quality.
What About Those Push Button Traffic Solutions?
I have found many to be pure hype. That is not the case for all traffic software programs though. Automation can be a huge time saver. Again, look at who is selling the software. Do they have a good reputation? Have they personally made money using the software that they are promoting? Are their testimonials? Is there proof?
Making money online does not have to be difficult. You just need a proven system and the ability to follow some simple directions.
If you want to learn from someone who actually walks the talk, check out THIS WEBINAR.
It could literally change your life.
This is a guest post from Caterina Christakos, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
