This is the fourth of the “Affiliate Marketers Can Compete With the Big Guys and WIN” 5-part series. If you missed parts 1, 2 and 3 you can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo provide search results based upon proprietary, complicated algorithms. These algorithms use different factors to determine the order in which results are returned for specific keywords and phrases.

When it comes to search engine results, marketers are left to make educated guesses about how to crack those algorithms in order to place their business in the top 7 spots of results.

One thing that we know for sure is that the net worth of a merchant is not a factor that determines the order of returned search results. The little guys and big guys are all subject to the very same criteria for order of placement in natural search results returned by search engines.

Another thing we know is that the number and quality of backlinks to a site can have a great influence on results. Nobody really knows, of course, but it’s been said that 80% of search engine “love” comes from backlinks to a website.

Winning Strategy #4: Concentrate Your Efforts on a Link Building Campaign

This is the third of the “Affiliate Marketers Can Compete With the Big Guys and WIN” 5-part series. If you missed parts 1 and 2, you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here

Even though affiliate marketers and the big guys have equal access to potential customers on the Internet there is still an area where the big boys have what appears to be the advantage of much larger advertising budgets. They have millions and affiliate marketers have hundreds.

But the playing field is still level. Why? Affiliate marketers have the advantage of being able to get up-close and personal with customers. The fact is; people buy from merchants that they trust and especially from merchants that will actually LISTEN to what their customers say.

Winning Strategy #3: Give Your Customers a Voice!

This is the second of the “Affiliate Marketers Can Compete With the Big Guys and WIN” 5-part series. If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here.

Affiliate marketers have access to the exact same Internet the big guys have access to. No matter how much money they have, those big multinational companies can’t BUY a bigger or better Internet. It’s a level playing field.

That means that affiliate marketers can access the same potential Internet customers that the big boys have access to. But there’s a big IF here. Affiliates will only have that kind of access IF they optimize their websites so their sites appear on the first page of search results when potential customers search for products to buy. And that’s today’s winning strategy.

Winning Strategy #2: Maximize the O in SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

This is the first of the “Affiliate Marketers Can Compete With the Big Guys and WIN” 5-part series.

The Internet has leveled the marketing playing field! Before a home computer became standard equipment for most households in America, a little “mom and pop” operation out in the brick and mortar world had no chance of competing against much less WINNING against giant multi-national companies.

That’s changed! Today a little start-up affiliate marketing business has access to the same worldwide market that the big guys once had a lock on. The Internet provides the ultimate “equal opportunity”. All we have to do to win is take advantage of the opportunity offered by applying winning marketing strategies.

Winning Strategy #1: Know Your Potential Customers

Google applies the “Duplicate Content” penalty when spiders find identical content on multiple pages of a website or on other websites across the internet.

If your site is found by the spiders to have duplicate content, Google can and will de-list your website.
So…what’s an affiliate marketer to do?