Jeremy Palmer is a well known affiliate marketer. The summary below was posted by AffiliateTips.com after Jeremy’s presentation at the Affiliate Summit. I participated in both the Black Ink Project and Black In Project 2 and say that I learned a lot and appreciated the time Jeremy took to assemble the materials and make the Black Ink Project happen. If you like the outline, I highly recommend you check out and sign-up for BlackInk2.com to see the full webinar materials. It is very well organized and informative.

Finding your niche:
• You can make money in any niche if you have passion and knowledge of a merchant’s product.
• You can get burned out if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing.
• You can still be successful with long tail keywords and obscure niches, but don’t get too obscure or you will not find customers.
• Most new affiliate marketers are afraid to enter a niche with a lot of competition, but a competitive niche means there is a lot of money to be made.
• Do not be swayed by big money pitches from merchants to promote their products. Stick with what you know and are passionate about.
• Be a specialist on the topic and product, not a generalist.

Develop a Plan:
• This is a real business. If you want to treat it like one you need a plan.
• A plan helps you stay on course and not make emotional decisions.
• A SWOT analysis can help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can give you insight into where you can add value and find your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
• Not developing a plan can make you miss opportunities, cause you to fly blind, and make it harder to read the market and your customer.
• Share your plan with colleagues for feedback. This will help remove tunnel vision.
• Print your plan on paper or draw on a white board. It makes it more “real” if you can touch it.

Create a Site Blueprint:
• A blueprint for your site will give you a strategic advantage.
• Use a wire frame blueprint to give you a visual idea how your content will look.
• A detailed blueprint will make it easier for your outsourced projects. It’s impossible to give too much detail to a freelance developer.
• Without a blueprint, you have a greater chance to go over budget and a harder time making changes down the road.
• Create the site blueprint with your customers in mind. Make it easy for them to navigate the path you’re making for them.
• Have your site goals in mind before you create it. Have your call to action ready and think about what you want your customers to do.

Write Value Added Content:
• Write for your customers, not search engines. Make them happy and make sure their needs are met.
• Make Google happy with lots of relevant content.
• Good content will get you back links.
• Without quality content, you’ll get less organic traffic, a lower Google quality score, and fewer backlinks and return traffic.
• Try to have content for each type of customer you’re targeting in the buying cycle.
• Have original fresh content up at least once a week.
• Use syndicated content sparingly.
• Do not limit to text. Mix podcasts and video.

Designing the Site:
• Think usability. You want your customers to get from point A to B easily.
• Think aesthetics. People like to visit and link to a professional looking site.
• If design is not your strength, you may want to outsource to companies like 99designs.com or elance.com.
• Make your content stand out. It needs to be found.
• A professional site will also get you more merchants.
• A bad design will have a high bounce rate and may lead to merchant dismissal.
• Simplify your site. Not every white space needs to be filled.
• Design for the lowest common denominator. For example, more people use IE over Firefox.

Outsourcing:
• You do not need to be a Jack of all trades. Stick with what you do best and try to outsource the rest.
• You can save time and money while getting a better finished product by outsourcing.
• Outsourcing your work frees you up to concentrate on what you enjoy and do best.
• When working with a freelancer, try paying a small deposit first and the rest upon completion.
• Be very specific with what you want done.
• Try to build long lasting relationships with freelancers that perform well.
• Read the The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

PPC (Pay Per Click Search):
• Pay Per Click is great for testing a niche and campaign before committing more time and money to it.
• You can test an unlimited number of landing pages.
• Rapidly cycle through different niches until you find one that converts well.
• Without testing, you could waste a lot of time and money while going far down the wrong path.
• Try direct linking at first to get an idea if the niche and keywords are good. (Not on Google)
• A 5-10 page mini site is not a long term solution. Build a larger site.

Tracking and Testing:
• Track your keywords. You can analyze your data and find what works quickly.
• Discover new keywords you haven’t thought of.
• The Super Affiliates are tracking their keywords.
• If you don’t track, you’re a gambler not a business person and could make the wrong move.
• Automate with software like Tracking202.com
• Optimize based on results and never be satisfied.
• Always be testing.
• Test the headlines, images, and call to action.
• Remember garbage in, garbage out.

Conclusion:
• Build a sustainable business.
• Don’t rely on only CPA and seasonal offers.
• Make the merchants need you.
• Diversify with many merchants and products.