How do you promote your affiliate site?

PPC, SEO, other methods...?

[ronin]

The year 2007 is well underway, so time for a quick survey.

It's been bothering me for a while that certain AM networks talk to their publisher communities as if everyone is doing PPC and there isn't an alternative.

I don't know a thing about PPC - I've never touched it. From the point when I launched my site at the start of 2003, I was only ever interested in SEO. That's still my mainstay, though I indulge in some "social marketing"... and word of mouth down the pub never hurts, I've found (especially if I have a couple of spare business cards on me).

Who else here has yet to take up PPC or only uses it as a minor promotional tool (ie. PPC makes up less than 50% of promotional efforts)? Is there anyone who has been a PPC pure-player until now but who is now starting to think about other methods of promotion?

While we're on the subject, does anyone want my Adwords vouchers? >;->

[Michael Anthony]

Agreed. In my experience the best aff sites are those that offer the visitor 2 options; buy something or go away.

[eljefe3]

I've tried using some myspace resource sites which did OK, but nothing great considering how much traffic these sites get. Lots of tire kickers and people looking for free things, but the free things affiliate programs really don't pay too much.

[eyeinthesky]

Hello Kirby, good post. But how do you actually attract the surfer who is going to buy straight away?

I guess one way is optimising for certain "buy keywords" for free serps traffic or bid for them at with PPC.

I tried many times to bid for buy keywords like "buy widget", "order widget","shop for widget" etc, on Adwords but not much luck.

Care to share what are buy keywords or how to attract people actually wanting to buy a widget right now?

[centime]

@ eyeinthesky

are you saying the cost was too high or that

you got no visitors , no clicks

or that what clicks you got did not convert

[eyeinthesky]

centime, I did not get many clicks on those keywords and no conversions as far as I know.

[Kirby]

But how do you actually attract the surfer who is going to buy straight away?

I only know what works in my niches. What I find is that the longtail searches are the best. These get far less traffic, but these people are looking for something specific - they are on a mission - and when they find it, they move on it.