Anyone with serious experience in affiliate marketing will tell you that the single most important tip in this industry is to make your website the authority of that genre. When we think of encyclopedia-type information, Wikipedia comes to mind. When we think of unique videos, YouTube is the answer almost every time. For sports, it’s ESPN, and honestly you and I can do this all day long. All of these businesses dominate their industries because they took a step forward and said, “We know our stuff better than anyone.”
Why Be an Authority?
Not only is that one heck of a marketing tool, but becoming an authority will get you more unique page hits than you know what to do with. All of a sudden people will turn to you for the answers when something happens and it makes your word just about as good as gold. As an industry expert you’ll be able to sell just about anything, which means that affiliates will be lining up to sing your praises and throw money at you.
Classic Authorities in Society
Take a look at Oprah Winfrey and her Book of the Month Club, for example, and the sheer number of new authors her program pumps out per year. Now, it really makes no difference if these books are any good or not because by the time the author sells through his first print, half of the country already considers this person a household name. When the second book rolls around it’s almost a guarantee to make the NY Times Bestseller list…all because someone on Oprah’s staff said so. Wouldn’t you love to command this type of respect from your readers?
Authorities in Cyberspace
In all honesty, there are tens of thousands of websites scattered about the Internet that have this kind of power within the industry…and most of them you’ve never even heard of. Ask any professional baker, for example, where they look online for new cake ideas, and most of them will name the exact same website. This is true for contractors, bankers, pilots, or just about any other industry you could possibly name; someone had the initiative to step forward and say, “Here’s what you need to know.”
How to Become an Authority
The best news is that there are millions of other unique topics in cyberspace that still need an authority voice; there is absolutely no reason why this couldn’t be you. To become an affiliate marketing authority, don’t tell your readers the same kind of stuff that is on existing websites; real industry experts go into a lot more detail as they break down the industry. Your website should be the actual voice of the businesses that you’re representing and people should almost immediately think, “Hey, I never thought of that…what a great idea.”
Of course, to be the authority you’ll really have to know your stuff inside and out and you’ll also have to update your readers with interpretations of breaking news as it happens. Being the authority on a subject is certainly not easy, but we promise that it is insanely profitable.