Alright, so here’s a little something that I wrote about the age old mystery: how the heck do you generate traffic for your affiliate marketing websites? To answer this question, I’ve written a poem:

Hey there internet surfers,
come to my page.
I’ll attract you with porn and PPC,
and I won’t even ask your age.

I’ll show you funny videos,
sure to make you laugh with delight.
And when you’re done laughing,
hopefully you’ll click a link for me tonight.

I’ve got Copeac, AdSense, NeverBlue, and CJ-
Brought to you by ClickBank and eBay.
Have an opinion that you want to express?
Make me a $1.05 by clicking the picture of OJ.

I’ll send e-mails, SEO like crazy, and even
pay for your clicks.
But boy, if you don’t convert
I’ll get mad and call you all dicks.

So here’s the lesson,
something you should know.
There aint no special secret that I’m gonna sell you.
No magic forumula- helllll no.

The secret to online affiliate marketing?  Traffic.  Being an online affiliate means that you will need to find a way to generate traffic to your affiliate websites, and that usually means that you will spend 90% of your time experimenting with various SEO methods and paid traffic sources.

The top three that most online affiliates choose are PPC, link exchanges, and e-mail.  All three of those paid traffic sources are above and beyond your SEO methods, and serve to create now income.

PPC: Use only Google’s AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft’s AdCenter.  Other search engines don’t receive enough quality traffic to make it worth your while.

Link Exchanges: Find websites that are relevant to your subject line and try to get a link on their page.  If they are receiving decent traffic some if it will bounce your way.

E-mail: Operating an e-mail campaign that is CAN-SPAM compliant can make you oodles of cash if you have enough e-mail addresses in your list.  Start developing an opt-in list and see if you can purchase a useful list from somewhere, such as WickedFire or DigitalPoint.

Remember, online affiliate marketing is a business and you need to treat it as such.  Critical problem solving and a bit of logic will help you succeed.  Oh, and before I “sign out”, there’s one last thing I should say: SEO trumps all, so never stop SEOing your websites.