You need to have some tools in your hand for successful affiliate marketing. This is similar to any other business or day job. To be a successful affiliate marketer, one must be through in all aspects. No one of us could be perfect but there are some tools that make us perfect.
Your Own Website:
Most of the sales letters by affiliate marketing gurus claim that you don’t need any website of your own to be a successful affiliate marketer. But this is a wrong concept. Unless you have your own website, you cannot convince the visitor that you are a genuine guy. A website loaded with unique and quality content will always attract visitors and even the search engines will reward them with higher SERPs. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on your website. You can get reputed Affordable Web Hosting services that charge $5-7/month.
Email Account:
Do not use free email accounts like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail etc for your business purpose. When you have your own website, you will be provided with unlimited email accounts. Use them for communicative purposes.
AutoResponder:
Autoresponder is an important affiliate marketing tool to send out broadcasts to your list. With a single mouse click, you can send the emails to a big list. Many suggest using paid services but I would recommend the auto responder services of your web hosting.
Keyword Research Tools:
The first step in building a website or for PPC is to conduct an effective keyword research. As keyword research is a very risky and time taking process, keyword research tools like Keyword Elite are very helpful to automate the things and save your precious time.
A List of Resources:
As you are dealing with affiliate internet marketing, collect information about affiliate
program directories, article directories, PPC search engines, Ezine directories, list building etc.
Training Guides:
Don’t be fooled with affiliate marketing guides that hit the market weekly. Instead of that pick all time best Affiliate Marketing Training guides and ebooks that guide you in depth. Pick and read the standard books and implement their ideas. Do not simply copy and paste them. Use your own creativity to resound a big SUCCESS in Affiliate Marketing.
Most of the above referred tools require a little bit of investment. Do remember that free methods are also available but you need to carry heavy research and are time consuming. Time wasted is Money wasted. So in this fast moving world, you should run as fast as possible to stay where you are.
Good point about the Auto responders. I would recommend using a professional Auto responder service like Aweber or GetResponse. The functionality and features that they provide would not be there in the responder provided by the website hosting company.