When you're selling something online, its a numbers game. The right amount of people converting at the right rate will give you the right profits. But how do you get the right people?

Use a well designed squeeze page. Try to avoid using a template that everyone else is using, because “ad blindness” will take over and your lead generation will fall flat. Aim for something unique and professional, that captures attention, creates interest, inspires desire, and causes action (the AIDA formula).

Personalize, or “brand” the entire experience of interacting with your autoresponder. Don't let your prospects see the default “confirmation” page, it will only dimish your professional appeal. Use your own header graphic and personal style of writing to increase your branding capabilities, and create a seamless customer experience.

Use popovers everywhere you can. Include an opt-in form on every page of your website, whether it is in a popover or in the sidebar. Utilize every opportunity to capture your prospect's information.

Offer something of value for free. Create a blog to share insights and offer to email updates to subscribers. Offer a free ebook or membership. Try to avoid things like free consultations, as they are time consuming and every freebie gets “tire kickers” that you don't want to use your valuable time on.

Finally, follow through with your marketing message. Make sure you have an autoresponder sequence of at least a week setup for your new subscribers, offering them detailed and valuable information on topics of interest. Then, keep sending out broadcast updates. Try not to constantly bombard your list with offers, but instead “train them” to receive offers. If you send nothing but information, subscribers will be upset when they receive a pitch, But if you send them valuable information AND recommend products on a regular basis, your subscribers will be trained to view your sales pitch and your conversion rates will increase.

Lead generation isn't difficult or time consuming, if you follow the right steps and take the right approach. Remember, nothing is free – and your prospects won't give up their information without getting something in return.

It should come as no surprise to you that your own subscriber list is absolutely essential to market online effectively, but it can sometimes be confusing when it comes to actually building that list. Essentially, there are three basic ways to build your list of subscribers – squeeze pages, popups/popovers, and referred leads.

Squeeze pages are one of the most common ways of list building. Essentially it is a short (although sometimes a full length sales letter) web page that encourages people to join your email list, usually for a free gift or email course. Article marketing is most effective with this method, as visitors are already familiar with the type of content you offer. Conversion rates of up to 50% have been seen with this method, provided that your article and resource box are tightly linked to what is available on your squeeze page.

Popups & popovers are often used on pages that already contain content, such as a sales letter. A variation of this method is a subscription form on the page, either in the sidebar or in the copy. The intention here is to offer some content, and then ask for the subscription. Free offers are often used here, too, although sometimes the subscription is simply for an update. Subscribing for updates is seen more often with “gurus”, as their credibility has already been established, and subscribing to updates will hold some value in itself. If you are less established, it is best to use a free gift of some kind to tempt your visitors into subscribing.

Referred leads are a great way to build a large list quickly, although it may be less targeted and full of “freebie seekers” and “tire kickers”. The most common way of building a list using referred leads is through a giveaway of some kind, where you offer a free product on a site with many free products, and people subscribe in order to get your product. It is basically a collection of squeeze pages, organized together so that each item receives more traffic than it typically could on its own.

You can also get referred leads by joint venturing with another list owner, and having his subscribers sent to your squeeze page. This method is often more effective, because the leads are more targeted. The downside to this method is that you and your partner are sharing a lot of the same subscribers, and they may eventually get tired if they see the same thing from two people over and over again.

The bottom line with list building is to offer something of value at every turn. You don't just have to get your subscribers, you also have to keep them. As long as you continue to offer value, from beginning to end, your subscribers list should grow to a healthy size, with happy subscribers.

The days of posting affiliate links everywhere that lead directly to the sales letter have long since passed. In their place, we have complicated pre-sales tactics, squeeze pages, email lists, cloaking, tracking, advertising, SEO & domain optimization. Where once you could have earned hundreds with nothing more than a link on a forum, you now spend days developing a content-rich website to carefully place your affiliate links – if you even put them on your website at all.

Its easy to see that the game has changed, but what does that mean for you? How do you do affiliate marketing on “the new internet”?

Essentially, there are three steps to effective affiliate marketing: Pre-sell, lead capture, motivate. You have to pre-sell your visitors both on yourself and the affiliate product, capture the lead information to market to them in the future, and motivate them to click on your affiliate link. There are more steps involved, but each one of them can be categorized under one of these three main steps.

How do you pre-sell? Keep in mind, you aren't simply pre-selling the product, you are pre-selling yourself, too. You have to show your visitors why you are credible, why they should listen to you about this product, and why they should buy through your link.

The trick to this is to change the perception of your advertising, and offer real value with it. Instead of “I like this product, buy it through my affiliate link”, try sending out special emails about “great deals” you find. If a hosting company is offering 50% off, email your list right away about the sale. You're offering them information that is valuable to them, in exchange for their click. And because there is no selling involved (you're sharing a great deal you found), they're more receptive to the offer when they reach the page.

You also have to pre-sell the product. Sometimes this could be as simple as a recommendation, like “I use this product and it is the best on the market.” That will work if you have a lot of credibility with your readership. Other times you have to go a bit farther, and promote the actual benefits of the product. But remember, the new internet is all about the soft-sell using content, so don't get carried away with pre-selling the product. Just give your visitors enough to get that “click”.

The lead capture is very important in affiliate marketing. In fact, if you do nothing else in this article, capture your visitor's information. Its easy, it takes only a few minutes to setup, and the rewards can be huge. There are two basic ways to do this, and each have their place.

The way most marketers capture information now is with an opt-in box on a content rich site, sometimes in the form of a popup. It always offers something valuable to potential subscribers, and motivates them to “buy” your offer with their email address.

The other lead capture method popular among affiliate marketers is the squeeze page. In its simplest form, it is just a single web page you direct traffic to and offer something free that relates to the product you are selling. People give up their information, and then are passed along to the sales letter for the product.

You can then market other affiliate products to this list of subscribers, and produce even more profits out of the same number of visitors.

No matter where you place your links, whether it be on a blog, content site, in an email, or even just a forum signature, you have to motivate your prospects to click on that link. Otherwise, you can't possibly make a sale. Offer your prospects a compelling reason to click. A discount works well, a bonus, or even just a recommendation from you. Test different motivators, and find the one that works best in your niche. Test everything you do, and you will always come out ahead.

Affiliate marketing has changed a lot in the past couple of years, and has really become a whole new ball game. Just remember the three steps – pre-sell, capture, & motivate – and you'll do just fine.