4) Build a sub list of targeted prospects.

Would you believe that I, personally, have built campaign designated email lists of less than 100 members, that have actually accounted for more sales than my main list ... that goes out to thousands of subscribers? Why? Laser targeting, my friend. Offer a campaign related update, course, report, or other form of freebie to attract them. In addition, you'll now have a ready made list for future promotions made by affiliate merchant.

5) Search engine optimize your promotional pages.

... for keywords and phrases relevant to your offerings, and run pay per click campaigns targeting same and comparable terms. The search engines shouldn't, by any means, be your sole source of promotion (email, forum, offline marketing ... to name just a few methods) but they could potentially play an important part. I recommend investing in a course like Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkin's 'Stomping The Search Engines' , which covers both SEO and PPC pretty extensively ... and effectively.

Work these 5 tips into your affiliate program promotions, and I'm sure you'll enjoy success.

Sidenote:

If you're participating in a multiple tier affiliate program, and you have access to your downline referrals, make sure you take time to train them to succeed. Remember ... their success is YOUR success!

This site allows searching for e-commerce sites in specific industries in order to view status, link popularity, ranking, etc. For our company we began by selecting five companies that best fit our industry and were in top 500. We took a look at what they were doing, and they must be doing something right if they are in top 500.

We made a list of their strengths and weaknesses and compared our strengths and weaknesses to theirs. This was best free Competition Analysis tool we had come across. It provided information on our competition and allowed us to begin carving out what our special niche could be and how to compete. The only thing that it cost was time.

For a startup e-commerce site with a limited budget I recommend trying this approach for Competition Analysis. This approach does not have to be your only tool but it can be a beneficial tool to add to your marketing toolbox.