Geof

Today i thought i would share a couple of tips. Eventually i will go back to being an affiliate, and i would start this way:

1. find a topic that really interests me, that will help writing content
2. choose a niche in that topic, and become the authority in that niche
3. choose a brandable domain name with my niche keyword and another short cool word, so that visitors can remember and relate to my brand
4. write loads of content focusing on secondary keywords on different pages, i know content is king
5. have the meta title include the primary keyword of each page, doh
6. write kick ass meta description with calls to action to encourage clics, re-doh
7. use the main keyword of each page in a header tag, doh again
8. repeat the main keyword in normal paragraph, have i said "doh" already?
9. write for my visitors, search engine algorithms do not have money to buy my products
10. have a blog section on my site, best way to add fresh content, to show my personality, my know-how on the topic...
11. ask my visitors to subscribe to my blog, that turns them into loyal visitors and encourages repeat business
12. write regular posts for my blog, good for search engines and my blogs subscribers
13. add value to my visitors, i want to be somewhat different don't i ?
14. use calls to action, to tell my visitors what i want them to do
15. create an ergonomic web design, i want my visitors to naturally click on "buy"
16. focus on conversion, i want ALL my visitors to buy my product, subscribe to my blog, give me their email address, and recommend my product to their friends
17. make use of breadcrumbs, my visitors will navigate easily and search engines will be guided to index my content
18. host my site on my own server or virtual server, i don't want a poor environment to hurt my rankings nor a poor server to not display my content
19. use analytics tools to know what works or not and keep improving my site
20. constantly work on link-building, that's a never ending story
21. listen to Matt Cutts and Jeremy Enke, they are the authorities in their fields
22. stay on the white hat SEO side for my main domain, i don't want to take any risks with that one
23. use right anchor text for linking, with the right keyword for the right page, making sure to have variations of anchor text keywords and not link everything to my home page; link building is so time consuming i'm better off doing it right from the start
24. build a network of sites pointing to my main domain, as a way to create authority to my own site
25. use keyword rich urls of sub niche for my network of other sites, keyword rich URLs do facilitate high rankings
26. work hard, be patient and consistent, it's too easy to be discouraged
27. set realistic goals, i want to see and measure my progress
28. want to be a full time affiliate to have the time to do all of this, and more...
29. attend to conferences to put a face on the names of the people i work with regularly and share some beers
30. network with other knowledgeable affiliates or other actors in my industry, i can learn a lot from them
31. learn from my mistakes to not repeat them and gather experience
32. complete my set of missing essential skills (whether SEO, marketing, programming, copy-writing, ...), to reduce my dependence and/or understand better what i have to ask for when i need to buy services from someone else
33. work with carefully chosen affiliate programs, to ensure i get the best converting products and affiliate services
34. use offline marketing techniques, there are customers out there as well
35. plan what are the next hot stuffs to promote in advance, to be the first to offer these to my visitors
36. diversify and repeat the above

There' certainly more to say so if you want to add your bits and pieces please add your comments!
And if you were to write a "if i were an affiliate manager" post i'd be happy to read it