One of the great things about having a blog is that you can have great readers that are really fun to get to know.  Susanne Myers is one of those, and she creates excellent content.  So, I was thrilled when she read my post from January 1 and asked to guest post.

Her post below is excellent — but there is something even better here.  I published my other post on the 1st of January (3 days ago).  On the morning of the 3rd of January (yesterday), Suzanne had an excellent guest post written and in my inbox.   She even put my affiliate links to her products in the post (her stuff is really good by the way).

Anyway, the lesson here (for me and for you) is to take action.  Be like Susanne.  Whatever it is, just do it.

Growing Your Affiliate Niche Site in 2011

By Susanne Myers – www.AffiliateTreasureChest.com

I loved Mark’s post on online business resolutions and how we often focus on the wrong thing. His analogy that internet marketing can be a lot like losing weight was spot on and I thought I’d take it one step further today and give you some tips on how to grow your affiliate niche site this coming year, focusing on the important things like providing  a lot of value and serving your readers.

Adding Content

A great place to start is by adding more content to your site on a regular basis. I find that my larger sites not only get the most traffic, they are also talked about more, get more comments and my lists are growing faster. There’s a bit of a snowball effect going on here… the more people know about your site the more talk about it across social media sites, on their blogs etc.

Does this mean you should get into autoblogging or throw a bunch of rehashed junk on your site? Of course not!  What it does mean is that you should take some time out each week (or ideally several times per week) to write some good content and share some interesting tips with your readers. It helps to have a schedule for this. Take a few minutes to figure out how often you can realistically add new content to your site each week. Then create a content schedule and plan out the first few posts or articles. Then make it a priority to get that content added and watch your site and your traffic grow.

Building Your List

Next, I suggest you spend some time building your lists. Lists allow you to get back in touch with your readers regularly and provide them with even more value. Over time you build a mutually beneficial relationship with them and your readers will quickly learn that they can trust your advice and the offers you present to them.

While money should never be the main focus or goal when you’re building your business, it does come in handy, and even in 2011, the money is still in the list. Let’s make this the year we really grow those lists.

Start by taking a look at your lists and optin boxes. Are there things you can improve? Are you split testing your optin forms to find the ones that convert best? Are you following up regularly with your readers? Are you sticking a good balance between providing them with valuable content and making offers?

Expanding Your Reach

Last but not least it’s time to expand your reach. Sure, blogging regularly will get you some traffic and keeping in touch with your list will continue to send them back to your site, but unless you also spend some time marketing your site, you’re missing out on a big chunk of traffic.  Here are some things you may want to start doing this year:

Guest Blogging

Write a few guest blog posts for other blogs in your market place. Email the blog owners and ask them if they would consider publishing them on their sites. You can quickly and easy expand your reach with just a few guest posts.

Article Marketing

Article Marketing still works. Get in the habit of writing and submitting articles regularly. I like Mark’s recommendation or Automatic Article Submitter to help you spread your articles far and wide. Again, this is about capturing and audience you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Link Building

Both article marketing and guest blogging are excellent ways to build links. Other things you can do are inviting readers to link to you, create “link magnets” (exceptionally good content that people will link to automatically), participating in social media, commenting on other blogs etc.  Make an effort to build some links to your site on a regular basis.

If you are ready to learn more about this, take a look at my link building program where I share what I’m doing to build thousands of links that help me improve my search engine rankings and send me traffic.

Viral Reports

Combine some of your articles and guest posts and even your own blog posts into short reports that you can then give away. You could also write something completely new, but I find it more effective to reuse my content this way. When you’re done, post the report on your blog, submit it to ebook sites and of course send it out to your list. Don’t forget to invite readers to share it with friends.

You can make your reports spread even further if you make them brandable. If you have your own products, you can allow people to “brand” the links in the report with their affiliate links. If you don’t have your own products and are strictly an affiliate marketer, allow them to brand some of the links in the report and keep some in there with your own affiliate links. Don’t forget to mention your name and your main site in there as well and link to some of your pages or blog posts were appropriate.

Here’s an example of a brandable report I’ve created recently with my friend Nicole Dean

http://www.brandablestuff.com/tools/weight-loss-blog/

Keep in mind that it’s all about sharing useful information that will help people.

Podcasting

Now here’s something I haven’t  done but Mark does really well and I think it has helped him not only extend his reach, but also contributes to his expert status.  Take a look at his podcast here:

http://www.latenightim.com/category/podcast/

Next I want you to consider creating and recording your own podcast. It’s definitely something I’m considering doing this year.

For now, keep adding content to your site regularly, build that list and then do something each and every week to expand your reach and watch your affiliate business grow in 2011

And now I’d like to invite you to take a look at my affiliate marketing blog at www.AffiliateTreasureChest.com . While you’re there, take a moment to sign up for regular email updates so you’ll never miss a thing.

And yes, I am taking my own advice and will be providing lots of great content on the blog throughout 2011. Let’s make this the most profitable year yet!