Adding affiliate links to online content is a great way to earn passive income. Links can be created and added to a wide range of products or services that fit the niche or topic you are publishing. I have added affiliate links to online content from a variety of sites including eHow, Twitter, EzineArticles, GoArticles, Squidoo, Blogger sites, Passive Family Income, and more! The opportunities and earnings potential are endless.

Using affiliate links as part of an overall internet marketing campaign can provide a steady stream of income. But what happens when you add a bunch of links to your online content and your affiliate abruptly ends a campaign? Worse yet, what if one of your main affiliate partners cancels your account? That is just what happened to my Amazon Associates account, due to a proposed affiliate tax in my home state.

There is little you can do to prevent the closure of an affiliate account or campaign. In some cases, these decisions are made by affiliate partners based on government laws and regulations. Instead of worrying and spending lots of time rebuilding broken links, there are some steps that can be taken. These up front actions will help reduce the time and effort required to maintain your affiliate links.

Here are a few steps you can take to reduce the time it takes to maintain your affiliate links -

• Develop an affiliate link journal to track your information.
• Create reusable affiliate link titles.

Another step that can be taken to reduce maintenance time on all of your affiliate campaigns is to develop dynamic links, which is detailed below.

Create Dynamic Affiliate Links

Creating dynamic links is probably the biggest time saver when it comes to building affiliate campaigns. Instead of adding the same affiliate link to several sources of online content, create one new link that can be added to multiple sources. This new link should be created so that it can be updated in one central location.

There are a couple of ways you can point your affiliate links to one location, with two popular techniques listed below.

• Forward Affiliate Links – One simple option to improve your management of affiliate links is to forward them to a domain that you own. This is very simple and costs a few dollars. Go and purchase a .info or other domain name from a discount domain provider. Then simply update your new domain and have it redirected to your affiliate link. The only downside to this is that you will need a new domain for each affiliate link that you want to promote. The upside is that you can now use your new domain url in every single location that you want to promote that product. If you ever want to change it out, simply redirect your new domain to point to another affiliate link. This technique requires one simple update on any affiliate change!
• PHP Redirect – Another option that can help reduce maintenance and centralize your affiliate links is to use a PHP redirect. This option requires that you have your own website, as well as some knowledge of PHP programming. You can use PHP redirect to manage your affiliate links so that they all point to a directory from your website. This takes a little bit of coding experience, but isn’t too complicated to implement. The upside of using this option is that there is no additional costs associated, provided you have your own website. For additional information on this technique, check out this great PHP redirect resource.

Final Thoughts

Adding a few additional steps when building affiliate links can save you lots of maintenance and frustration overtime. These extra steps will help to limit your time spent keeping your affiliate marketing campaign running smoothly, while you focus on building new income streams. Successful passive income streams are built around this principal!

Do you use dynamic affiliate links?

Related posts:

1. Creating Reusable Affiliate Link Titles
2. Stay Organized! – Keep Track of your Affiliate Links
3. North Carolina’s Proposed Affiliate Tax

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As I continue to clean up hundreds of my affiliate links after losing my Amazon Associates account, I am using new methods to update and add new links. The first step that I am taking is to start an affiliate link journal to track all of the various links that I have published. This journal (using Microsoft Access) will allow me to see where I have placed all of my links and help me keep my internet marketing campaigns organized.

The next step that I am taking to improve my affiliate links is to start updating the titles of my links. Whether it be an affiliate link placed in some of my eHow articles, niche sites, or other various online content – creating reusable titles will help reduce the amount of time required to maintain these links in the future. In order to make internet marketing a viable passive income stream, I believe this is a necessary step that will payoff in the future.

So what exactly do I mean by creating reusable affiliate link titles?

Create Reusable Affiliate Link Titles

Creating reusable titles in your affiliate links will allow you to quickly change out the url that is behind the link with little impact to your content. For example, if I were promoting a new eBook, I would make the title generic enough that it is not directly specific to the product. Here is an example of what an old title may have looked liked compared to a new generic title for selling a new eBook on how to make money from eHow.

• Old Title – “How to Make Money on eHow – A step by step guide to making $1,000 per month”
• New Title – “Earn over $1,000 per month on eHow!”

The titles above are fictitious examples of promoting an eBook on making money from eHow. The Old Title was an example using the the fictitious eBook title. If I ever decided to change out this product, I would need to go back in to the link and change the title. Using a generic title would allow me to simply change the link. Obviously the title is still specific to ways to earn money on eHow, but I can now quickly switch out the product or service in the link with no impact to the title.

Exceptions to the Rule

Obviously there are exceptions to this technique depending on the situation. If I were promoting the Amazon Kindle Reader for example, I would probably use the name of the product in that case. In the case of selling a specific product or service, I would continue to use specific affiliate link titles.

Don’t Overdue your Reusable Titles

While I believe it is important to create reusable titles on my affiliate links – I don’t want to overdue it. After all, a very generic title is not going to help me generate any money if nobody clicks on the link and makes a purchase. Be sure the link still reflects the product or service you are trying to sell and appeals to your target audience.

Final Thoughts

Updating the titles on your affiliate links may not seem like a big deal. In some cases, it may not even make sense to use a reusable title in your links. However, I believe it is important and necessary to complete this step. Creating passive income requires you to eliminate waste. Using affiliate link titles that can appeal to multiple products is just one small way to help reduce wasted maintenance time.

What do your affiliate link titles look like? Are they very specific to the product you are trying to sell?

Related posts:

1. 2 Options for Creating Dynamic Affiliate Links
2. Stay Organized! – Keep Track of your Affiliate Links
3. How to Create Passive Income Through Affiliate Marketing

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One of the most profitable and exciting ways to make money online today is through internet marketing. The main monetary source around this income stream is usually through the use of affiliate links that are added to online content using various platforms. Links to products and services can be added to blog articles, social media outlets like Twitter, email communications, and more.

While using affiliate links to earn passive income is a great way to earn money, there are a few things to keep in mind. Usually internet marketing requires one to open up several accounts through various affiliates to get a good mix of products and services. Some popular affiliate accounts include Amazon Associates, Commission Junction, and Clickbank to name a few. Relationships are established through these sites between internet marketers and providers of goods and services. Once these relationships are created, the links are then placed in various online content by the internet marketer.

One downside of establishing multiple accounts with several different products and services is how to keep track of everything. Having multiple affiliate links through several partners can create a headache when you try to update or change the content of these links. Add on the fact that you may be using the same link through multiple media outlets like blogs and email – and it can easily get out of hand.

Create an Affiliate Link Journal

Keeping an affiliate link journal is one way that you can easily track where and what you are promoting. Create a simple spreadsheet or personal database with affiliate account and link information. Whenever a link is added, removed, or modified – simply make this change in your journal. This simple exercise can save a lot of time, effort, and money in the long run!

Here are a few of the data elements that should be included in your journal -

• Media Outlet – Examples: eHow, Blogs like Passive Family Income, EzineArticles, etc.
• Content Link (or where the link will be published) – Example: http://www.passivefamilyincome.com/how-to-improve-affiliate-links/
• Affiliate Account – Examples: Amazon Associates, Clickbank
• Affiliate Link – Example: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/…

There are several other fields that can be included in your journal besides what is listed above. Having this data documented can help you quickly identify your affiliate links that are working hard for you and earning income!

How do you keep track of your affiliate links?

Related posts:

1. 2 Options for Creating Dynamic Affiliate Links
2. Creating Reusable Affiliate Link Titles
3. North Carolina’s Proposed Affiliate Tax

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