Affiliate Marketing Isn't Over When Your Computer Is Off by Beth Robinson

Just because you turn off the computer doesn't mean you need to stop marketing your affiliate program offers. You can take that program offline with you and use a wide range of grassroots marketing techniques to get the offer and the website url into the hands of prospects.

Effective methods could include: - printing and distributing brightly colored flyers - buying a direct response mailing list of physical addresses and sending postcards to these targeted prospects - giving a speech at a local club or association interested in the niche - placing classified ads in local papers - and many more besides

But before you get too into planning your offline affiliate marketing campaign, ask these three questions.

1. Will this offer appeal to offline buyers?

The old mantra of knowing your audience is even more important in this case. Your offer needs to be compelling enough to drive a person to find a computer and type in the web address. This is far more effort than it takes to lift a finger and click the mouse button on a link. You either need to offer a better deal or reach much more targeted prospects.

2. Will you receive a return on your investment?

This is not the time to be earning only $5, or even $20, per sale unless it's in a market you've already proven will buy. You probably have a smaller number of people that it is possible for you to reach with no possibility of getting organic traffic from search engines or bumping up your offer via social bookmarking. Make sure to take into account the potential marketing costs in money and time.

3. Can you set up an easy to remember domain name?

Directing your own domain name to your affiliate link a common tactic in affiliate marketing, but it becomes even more important if you're promoting the affiliate offer offline. Your prospect has to manually type in the website's address. Which do you think is more likely to be but in correctly - "besttraveladviceever" or "travelsecrets/jv1234/s/max7/gobbledygook"?

You will likely be asking yourself these questions, considering marketing techniques, reviewing that you have the right offer, redefining your audience, and otherwise circling around the concept for a little bit, especially if you haven't sold anything in the "real world" before. Remember to take action! You'll learn far more that way than from a general article like this one.