There are lots of good sources that can tell you a great deal about how to establish an affiliate marketing business, but there aren’t many places where you can find someone to do some of the hardest work for you.  Well, I haven’t quite solved that problem for you, but I know that I have unearthed what is probably nearly as good.

I sell my own digital and physical products, but a sizeable chunk of my income still comes from affiliate marketing, where I began.  I use websites and blogs for all of my online business activities.  I am a firm supporter–make that “enthusiast”–of SEO for traffic generation, but that is a long term process; good search results take time to build.  For some of my affiliate marketing, I have tried PPC, but rarely have I had success over the long haul. 

Consequently, like many in affiliate marketing, increasing traffic at a reasonable cost is one of my most vexing challenges.  It is particularly difficult for those times when I discover a new affiliate product but for which none of my sites are well optimized.  How do I send my traffic to the vendor’s site?

My approach to directing traffic to the vendor’s site is just like many other affiliate marketers, I bring the visitors to my own site initially for an introduction to the product or, perhaps a comparison of competing products.  I hope they’ll click the link that will take them to the spot where they might actually buy the product that will earn me my pittance.  I would like to make that process a bit less involved and take the prospects to the vendors a little more efficiently.

I use article marketing extensively for all of my sites.  I employ that strategy primarily for its SEO value but also for the direct visitors that are sent my way.  However, especially for an affiliate marketer, there are two major problems with traditional article marketing.  The first of those problems is that the top tier directories that publish and distribute articles do not allow links within the body of the article, contextual linking.  Typically, the links are isolated below the article itself in a sort of no man’s land called the author’s box or the resource box.  The second big problem, maybe the biggest of all, is that the top ranking article directories all refuse to permit affiliate links even in those little boxes.

At last there is a content syndication service thall allows both contextual linking and inclusion of direct affiliate links.  It’s called My Article Network–and, yes, once you are a member, you can join its affiliate program.

My Article Network is like a consortium for article marketers and content publishers.  (The link goes to some specific information about My Article Network on one of my sites.)  It’s another of those Callen projects that most of us who hang around online business for any period of time have come to know so well.

It would be wise for me to let the sales page of My Article Network speak for itself.  I have been a member of the system for less than seven weeks, and I am definitely ready to proselytize!  I joined it for the article distribution, but I became so enthused that I set up four new blogs to take advantage of the free content in some of my niches.  {(Go ahead.  Click the link, you know you want to.)(Do it!  You know you want to click the link.  Come on…don’t you think I deserve it?}