Article marketing is one of the oldest yet most effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics in the affiliate marketing universe.

Article marketing’s worth to affiliate marketers has been proven again and again. But SEO isn’t the only advantage article marketing offers you as an affiliate marketer.

Your Author Name

Article marketing is also one of the best authority-building tools on the Internet. Writing articles on a topic which are picked up and published by others in ezines and on websites helps to establish you as an authority in your niche.

All articles that you submit to an article directory (Ezine Articles, AffSphere, etc.) are offered for reproduction at no cost to others. But there is one stipulation of reproduction of an article that ensures that the author of the article is given credit for writing the article: the resource box!

Your name is in the resource box. A link to your website or to an offer you are making is also in the resource box. Anyone who reads the article you wrote, knows that YOU wrote the article. And if your articles is well written and provides useful and timely information, the reader is apt to click on your link.

The idea is to establish YOU as a niche authority. You want people to associate your name with your niche. One author name is fine for one niche.

Different Author Names for Different Niches

Most affiliate marketers eventually work in more than one niche.

This is the fifth and final installment of the five-part “5 Not-to-Dos for Affiliate Marketers” series. If you missed them, you can read part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here.

We’re all used to seeing signs that tell us what we should NOT do; keep off grass, do not enter, etc.

Unfortunately there are no Not-To-Do signs posted anywhere in the affiliate marketing universe.

You can go out there, and without any warning, make costly affiliate marketing errors.

The staff at Affiliate Classroom wants to help you stay safe and become prosperous. So the fifth thing on our affiliate marketers’ “not to do” list is …You must:

Never Fail to Stay Abreast of New Developments in Your Niche

Product improvements, new concerns for your audience, and niche news move at the speed of light. What was new yesterday is today’s Internet equivalent of the buggy whip.

“So,” you ask, “how do I stay abreast of developments in my niche?”

Here are our top three recommendations:

This is the fourth installment of the five-part “5 Not-to-Dos for Affiliate Marketers” series. If you missed them, you can read part one here, part two here and part three here.

There are a lot of advantages for you, as an affiliate marketer, to knowing what you should not do in order to make your affiliate marketing business successful. You have a long laundry list of things you think you should do. But if you know what not to do, you can likely cross several items off your “to do” list.

You want to spend the hours you have to devote to your affiliate marketing business wisely. You want to get the most “power from each hour” you can possibly get. So the fourth thing on our affiliate marketers’ “not to do” list is …

Don’t Stick to Only Old Hat Advertising Methods

Don’t misunderstand. You shouldn’t toss out tried-and-true advertising methods that have been proven effective.

PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising is the biggest advertising bargain that the world has ever seen. You pay only when your advertisement is clicked on and a potential customer comes to your website.

Advertising in niche-related ezines can’t be wrong. Subscriber lists of these ezines are made up of the people who are most likely to buy whatever it is you are selling.

Article marketing, posting to blogs, and forum posting are top-notch SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics. And they’re advertising methods that work!
Don’t toss any of them.

But you also have to embrace and take advantage of new advertising methods.

This is the third installment of the five-part “5 Not-to-Dos for Affiliate Marketers” series. If you missed it, you can read part one here and part two here.

You’re all grown up and you’re an affiliate marketer now, but when you were a kid, you often had to learn things the hard way — fire is hot, mom really gets ticked off when you color on the wall, dad goes ballistic if you leave your bike in the driveway and teachers give you really bad grades if you don’t do your homework!

You learned (eventually) that it was in your own best interest to give others what they wanted and keep yourself safe.

The 5 Not-to-Dos for Affiliate Marketers will also help you, as an affiliate marketer, give others (your customers, your visitors and the search engine bots) what they want and keep you safe.

The third thing on our affiliate marketers’ “not-to-do” list is…you should NEVER….

Make Promises You Can’t Keep!

This is the second installment of the five-part “5 Not-to-Dos for Affiliate Marketers” series. If you missed it, you can read part 1 here.

“Not-to-dos” can simplify and shorten your affiliate marketing business “to-do” list. Knowing what NOT to do often clarifies what you do need to do and in what order you need to accomplish and mark tasks off your “to-do” list.

The number two item on your affiliate marketing “not-to-do” list is to…

Never Use Black Hat Marketing Techniques!

The thing about black hat marketing techniques is that they seem like such GOOD marketing techniques. They’re not! Black hat marketing is sneaky, underhanded, and just plain dishonest.

In yesterday’s post, we discussed how the Internet actually functions more like a small town than like the vast, anonymous, and faceless place it appears to be. Your good reputation is your greatest affiliate marketing asset in your customer relationships.

The search engines need to see you as a “good guy wearing a white hat” as well. Your good reputation with the search engines will keep you in business.

If you employ black hat marketing techniques, the search engines WILL find you out, and you’ll experience the Google Slap firsthand. You’ll be OUT of business!

There are more, but three affiliate marketing black hat techniques you want to avoid are: