This is the second in a series of articles about Affiliate Marketing

If you are an internet entrepreneur with an Ecommerce website you know that establishing your own Ecommerce website is not as easy as it used to be. There are thousands of competitors all after their share of the pie. That is why it is important to leverage every method available to maximize the potential to monetize the traffic your website gets. The internet is a veritable source of information, many tips and guides are offered everywhere about how to monetize your traffic and make your site a viable income source.

If you are like most web entrepreneurs you did not create a website just to post information. You created a website to post information, establish your expertise, build your credibility and to make money.  And yet, many web entrepreneurs waste time and effort only to realize that with all the hours they have put in they are making less than minimum wage. Are you one of them?

The fact is that without traffic there is no business. The saying “nothing happens until someone buys something” is just as true in Ecommerce as it is for any brick and mortar business. Both need traffic (potential customers) to generate interest, turn those prospects into customers by getting them to buy your products and services. Traffic represents all the people who have the opportunity to see what you have to offer. The more people who see your products and services, the more opportunities you have to sell something.

In fact, nobody puts up an Ecommerce site that doesn’t expect to make a profit.  Once you start building consistent traffic, you have a greater chance of making a profit.  But that is only the beginning. Knowing how to monetize your traffic is the key to profitability.

Turning Traffic into Cash

One of the ways to turn a profit from your traffic is through advertising.  And while a great deal of the millions and millions of people surfing the net are only interested in information, many of them are searching for something to solve their problems, to ease their pain and to buy. What do/can you offer to ease your target audience’s pain?

The internet has leveled the “playing field” for most web entrepreneurs making the world a much smaller place. You can advertise your product anywhere and buyers come from everywhere.

Don’t think that generating traffic is an easy task. But if done successfully the possibilities and potential are limitless. Here are just a few of the ways to use paid for advertising to get traffic to your website:

Pay-per-click
Banner advertising
Google ad words
Facebook ads
Purchase ads on other websites
Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines
Mobile Marketing

The more traffic you can generate the better your chances of making a sale. And the more traffic, the better your rankings making it easier for folks to find you on the search engines. When you start increasing traffic you increase your potential customers, customers that are willing to pour money into your coffers.

What if you have traffic but nothing to sell? One of the ways to generate income from traffic is through affiliate programs. In fact, many a web entrepreneur makes money ONLY PROMOTING OPS (other people’s stuff).

The basic idea is, traffic generated from your site will go to another site that offers a service or a product that you do not carry. With the right offer and a good system in place (affiliate tracking software supplied by the company or individual whose product you are promoting) you can make a nice living selling via affiliate program marketing.

How it works: when purchases are made by customers that were directed by your site to their site you get a percentage of that sale. Affiliate programs give you the benefit of monetizing your traffic without the actual need to carry or promote anything of your own. No inventory, no customer tracking, limited customer service (the site you direct the traffic to should be well equipped with a solid customer service program to take care of any questions or issues that may arise.

In addition to Advertising and Affiliate Marketing, there are many FREE strategies and options that will bring traffic to your website and help you to then monetize that traffic. Some of them include:

Word of Mouth
Link exchanges
Ad exchanges
Back links from high page rank websites
Social media
Article submission
Blogging
Your email signature
Submit your website to the major directories
Keyword and Key phrase Optimization
Freebies

In subsequent articles we will talk about each of these ways to get traffic to your site.

Generally speaking, traffic can equal profit (of course there are other things to consider including good content, an enticing offer and the systems in place to turn that traffic into cash). Advertising is the name of the game, and using a combination of advertising strategies you can turn that traffic flow into a profit generating machine.  All it takes is a consistency, time and the desire to successfully launch a profit-earning site. After all, isn’t that why you started your ecommerce website?

Related articles:

Choosing the Best Affiliate Marketplace  

Advertising Your Product Via Mobile Marketing

5 Ways To Generate Website Traffic for FREE!  

Making Money with Google Adsense Tuesday Tutorial

Note: If you are in South Florida be sure to Join Women in Ecommerce on Thursday March 17th (Saint Patty’s Day) when two of the POWER of 3 present Publicity, Internet Marketing and Your Business Online !