There are many places where we can learn about an affiliate marketing business.  Unfortunately, it is much harder to find someone to do the actual difficult work for you.  Well, I may not have found a long hidden source of free labor, but I have discovered what I think is the next best thing.

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 rely quite heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) to secure traffic, but that is a long term strategy.  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 take them first to my own site, where I ply my skills of subtle persuasion.  Then I just hope that I have been sufficiently convincing to get them to click the link that directs them to the vendor’s site so that I have some small chance of earning my commission.  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.  Second, the major article directories do not allow affiliate links or even links to redirected pages or domains.

At last there is a content syndication service thall allows both contextual linking and inclusion of direct affiliate links.  Yes, you will be able to join the affiliate program of the amazing My Article Network once you become a member of the service.

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.

Since I am writing for affiliate marketers, I’ll cut short the presell message and let 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!  In fact, I even set up four new niche blogs to make use of the free content that my colleagues provide.  {(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?}